PJ Mallette discovered petanque at 10, and has been bowled over since

A group of people were playing a game, which he would later learn was called petanque.|

When PJ Mallette was 10 years old, he walked through Depot Park on his way to a Little League game and saw something that changed his life.

A group of people were playing a game, which he would later learn was called petanque. Mallette approached them and asked if he could join.

“At first they weren’t sure if they wanted to let a kid in,” Mallette recalls. “There was some social drinking and that kind of thing. But then they were like, ‘Well, we’ve really got to if we want to build the future of the sport.’”

Soon, he was hooked and started coming to the park to play almost every day. He was good, and he got better.

At age 15 he was selected to go to the junior world championships in Thailand. Two years later, he went to the juniors in France. Next came a trip to the men’s championship in Turkey, and then a stint coaching the women’s championship team.

Now, after a strong showing at a regional tournament in Fresno, Mallette is part of a men’s team that will challenge for the championship next fall, in Tahiti or Europe (the location is yet to be decided).

That’s a lot of globetrotting from one chance encounter in the park, and for a sport you’ve possibly never heard of.

For the uninitiated: Petanque (pronounced “pay-tonk”) is a French game, a cousin of horseshoes or bocce. Players throw balls, called boules, toward a target ball, trying to get as close to it as possible. Points are awarded to the player or team who gets closest to the target ball, and most games conclude after 13 points are accumulated, according to rules posted on Petanque America’s web site, petanque.us.

It’s a simple game and easy to pick up; hence its popularity in parks and social drinking circles. But professional petanque is serious business.

The money’s not big, though Mallette says some tournaments hand out prizes of up to $1,000. But the sport is popular, particularly overseas, where Mallette says impressive crowds gather to watch the championships.

Mallette’s team in next year’s championship features players from Florida, Texas and Palm Springs.

“We’re trying to get together for some practice sessions, but it’s tough,” he says. One idea, he adds, is for the team to get together to train with a French coach in Monaco.

“Chemistry is important,” Mallette says. “I’ve been on teams where the individual players were very good, but they didn’t necessarily work together as well as they could have.”

Asked about his team’s chances, Mallette admits they’ll be an underdog, particularly against powerhouse countries like France or Thailand. “The United States is pretty down there in the rankings of international competition,” he says. “But the team I’m going with, two out of three of them are very close friends of mine and great players. So I like our chances.”

“It’s always a question of whether you can withstand the nerves and the pressure of getting out there,” he adds. “But if we make sure we beat the teams we should, maybe we can pull off an upset here or there. You never know.”

Win or lose, Mallette says he’s happy to see the sport growing.

“It’s such a unique game,” he says. “You can be any age and play competitively. I started at 10 years old, and I was playing against people who were 80 or 90 years old. It has a great social aspect. It’s very Sonoma-French.”

Petanque, in other words, crosses ages and oceans. It welcomes players of all shapes, sizes and skill levels.

And for that Little League-bound kid strolling through Depot Park all those years ago, it was a game-changer.

The “petanque curious” can get the ball rolling by visiting the Valley of the Moon Petanque Club site at vompc.org or visit Depot Park’s courts.

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