After years of glory, the second oldest club in the United States is on the verge of collapse.
It barely manages to attract a handful of players and its tournaments are sparsely attended.
It is obvious that the club needs help to stave off disaster.
But La Boule d’Or’s predicament is not unique.
Many pétanque clubs are steadily losing members and something needs to be done to counter this trend.
The problem in San Francisco and in Marin County is that these clubs were originally founded by native Frenchmen and attracted mainly French players.
Many of these old-timers passed away and practically none of their children (eager to conform with their American peers) took up that sport.
And the exceptions are Agnes and Gilbert Sonet.
Early on, this nice French couple instilled in their son Noah the love of pétanque. He started playing at 3 ½ and now at 11 he is already a remarkable player.
I predict that this boy will undoubtedly improve with age and soon be somebody to reckon with.
We need more people like Agnes and Gilbert… I think that we should look for ways to clone Noah.
But seriously… The only pétanque clubs thriving in America are clubs headed by younger Americans. And rightly so.
They have the savvy and the energy that many older French people don’t have anymore.
So what can we do to promote pétanque?
It seems to me that we need some incentive. We need to dangle some kind of carrot in front of youthful individuals to incite them to set foot on our fields.
What kind of carrot? I don’t know.
I leave it to you readers to provide answers. Let me know if you have a killer idea susceptible to snare potential recruits.
If you do, I am pretty sure that our club could find a nice way to reward the person with the best workable suggestion.
Get your brain in gear… On your mark, get set, go!
Alain