Free jai-alai clinics for children 10 through 16 at Dania this weekend
Dania Jai-Alai is teaching the game to young people the next two weekends.
The fronton will host free clinics from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday and Sunday and again on Aug. 22-23. It's for children 10 through 16.
Benny Bueno, the fronton's new Player Development Manager, will give a tour of the court, go over the rules and teach them how to throw and catch the ball. (They'll us a rubber one, which isn't nearly as painful as the regular pelota.)
“It's a dream for me… giving back to the sport that gave me so much,” said Bueno, a former professional palyer. He would like to set up youth jai-alai programs at area schools -- but I don't think he'll be explaining how to bet a trifecta, box the favorites in a perfecta or explain what it's like to be out there playing and hearing a patron betting against you yell "DROP IT, FIVE!"
Parents are urged to sign up their kids early online at www.dania-jai-alai.com/clinic or can register when they arrive.
NICK SORTAL began playing 3-card "gut" and "Indian poker" on high school band trips, moved on to "night baseball" and "pass the trash" during a Dr. Pepper-infused midnight game in the 1980s at the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, and now play in a regular neighborhood Hold 'Em game in Plantation. I have been given the assignment of writing about the gambling life in South Florida casinos for the Sun-Sentinel...which means sitting around watching poker on TV now counts as research.
