Bocce deserves better.

Better stats. Better tools. Better insights. That’s why we BocceLabs exists; four people who believe this sport is ready for its next chapter, and who are building the technology to make it happen.

We aren’t reinventing bocce, we’re adding to it. To give the players, leagues, and venues a platform they've been missing, one that captures the beauty of what's already happening on the court and makes it accessible to everyone.

Here's who we are.

Dave Hoffman, Founder, Infrastructure & Engineering

Dave’s Bocce career started on a beach in North Carolina. Or maybe it was a campsite?

Long before BocceLabs had a name, Dave had a question: why doesn't bocce have better data?

Dave, known around the community as Digital Dave, holds three engineering degrees (Electrical, Computer, and Software Engineering) and has spent years thinking about ways to score, track, and understand this sport at a deeper level. In 2022, he started a blog to share tech ideas and experiments with the bocce world. He'd float concepts, tinker with prototypes, and invite anyone who cared about the future of bocce to follow along.

What started as one engineer's curiosity has become the backbone of a real platform. Dave designed and built the infrastructure that powers everything BocceLabs does: the databases, the cloud systems, the software that turns raw match data into something meaningful. When a stat appears on a broadcast or a player's history loads on screen, it's running on architecture Dave laid down.

But for Dave, the tech was never the point; the sport is. He sees BocceLabs as a way to preserve matches that would otherwise be forgotten, recognize players who deserve it, and give bocce the kind of visibility that helps it grow. He didn't just build a product. He started a movement.

Milan Tomic, PhD. Co-Founder, Community & Partnerships

Milan Tomic has spent most of his life running toward things other people run from. From 2007 to 2012, he served in the United States Air Force as a medic, including a deployment during the Iraq War. After his service, he became a firefighter-paramedic in the Chicago area, the kind of work where preparation, teamwork, and calm execution under pressure aren't buzzwords, they're the difference between life and death. That background shaped everything about how Milan operates: mission-first and completely allergic to wasted potential. 

Milan saw a sport with deep tradition, real talent, and loyal communities, but no unified system to preserve any of it. Championships that lived only in memory. Players whose careers had no record. Leagues running on spreadsheets and word of mouth. Bocce had everything except the infrastructure to match its history; so he decided to build it.

Milan is a co-founder of BocceLabs and the driving force behind the company's relationships with leagues, clubs, and broadcasters across the country. He's the one in the room making the case, forging the partnerships, and rallying people around a vision that's as clear as it is ambitious: create the digital backbone of American bocce.

This is about legacy. Every roll, every point, every championship deserves to be documented and respected. He wants bocce to have the same statistical depth, the same storytelling infrastructure, and the same permanence as any major sport. His mission is simple: respect the past, structure the present, and engineer the future of competitive bocce.

Tony Donofrio, Product & Design

Tony's bocce career started five years ago with a slice and a birdie…or maybe it was a bogey? The point is, he was golfing with friends from Lowellville who played in the Mt. Carmel league. After the round, they headed to the Mt. Carmel club, somebody pointed at the bocce courts, and that was that.

He started as a pointer. Placement, touch, finesse, the quiet side of the game. Then someone asked him to hit. One shot. Then another. Now, Tony is a full-time shooter for the Cleveland Hellhounds in the Ohio Bocce League, and he hasn't looked back. Speaking of the OBL, Tony finished season one with a 71% shoot rate (109 attempts!)

The BocceLabs story for Tony is simple: he, too, is a software engineer who saw Dave's post on Instagram and recognized exactly what was needed. He DM'd Dave, said he could help with the UI, and got to work. Like the rest of us, Tony saw something worth building for.

Tony owns everything you see and touch when you use BocceLabs. The interfaces, the dashboards, the flow of every screen. He's the reason the platform doesn't just work, it feels right. If Dave built the engine, Tony built the cockpit.

Jared Knizacky, Finance & Accounting

As for myself? I didn't grow up playing bocce. But I've always been drawn to competition (perhaps too competitive? Don’t ask my fiancee). I love golf and have spent years immersed in the world of Magic: The Gathering, a game that rewards preparation, adaptability, and reading the room. 

It was the summer of 2025, a new bar just opened up in Grand Rapids, called SILVA. I wandered in one night with friends and was stopped in my tracks. In front of me were five beautifully crafted synthetic courts stretching nearly 70 feet across this massive room. With a cold IPA in my hand, I was able to find myself on a court, not knowing how much this game would eventually consume me. I learned about the inaugural SILVA leagues and signed up with those same friends. The Big Lebocce hasn’t missed a season since (and currently reigning back to back champs).

What got me wasn't just the game; it was the weight of every decision. Bocce rewards you for trusting yourself. Every roll, every frame, every match asks the same question: do you believe in the shot you're about to make? If Magic taught me to think three turns ahead and golf taught me to trust my swing, bocce has taught me to do both at once. 

The BocceLabs connection happened similarly to Tony. I was watching the season one OBL broadcast one night and noticed something unusual on the broadcast: Real-time stats. Player data. Analytics. I'm a finance person by trade (FP&A, corporate planning, the kind of work where you live inside the numbers), so seeing that layer on a bocce broadcast lit something up inside me. I DM'd BocceLabs that night and asked how I could help.

Now I run the financial side of the house. Accounting, expenditures, planning, partnerships, and making sure we're building something sustainable. I bring the same intensity to the business that I bring to the table, course, and court. I want BocceLabs to win.

We believe bocce is one of the most compelling competitive sports out there, and it's only getting bigger. The community is growing. Leagues are multiplying. Venues are investing. Players are taking it seriously. Fans are engaged.

What's been missing is the connective tissue, the platform that ties it all together. Real-time stats during play or broadcasts. Player profiles that travel with you from match to match. Management tools that make running a league easier. Analytics that help players grow and fans engage.

That's what we're building.

We've been fortunate to work alongside incredible partners, leagues, venues, and broadcasters who share our vision and have trusted us to be part of their operations. Every partnership teaches us something new, and every season we get better. That’s our promise to you all.

We're just getting started. And we couldn't be more excited about where this is going.

Welcome to BocceLabs.

Thanks for reading my first blog post! If you’ve made it this far, then you’re probably someone just as dedicated as we are when it comes to bocce.

We're forming an advisory board to help guide the next stage of our growth and long-term vision. We're looking for strategic thinkers, across bocce, technology, operations, media, and community leadership, who want to help shape the infrastructure behind the future for the sport. The best ideas don't always come from inside the room, and we want to make sure ours is open.

This board will help us evaluate opportunities, sharpen priorities, and build toward a platform that can support leagues, preserve history, and expand participation over time. 

If this sounds like something you'd want to be part of, please reach out. We'd love to connect.

Take care, 
Jared