The Unabridged Story of the DC Clap

THE EARLY DAYS…Circa 1998

Jim Haggerty (DC Clap + Hot Lunch '06-'07) and Tim Naylor (DC Clap + Hot Lunch '06-'07) ran the lifeguard staff of a small swim club in suburban New Jersey called Sunnybrook. It was at this swim club where countless hours of bocce and horseshoes were played 7 days a week (Former Hot lunch '06-'07 teammate Ben Detofsky was also an employee of this fine establishment). The following summer Jim and Tim signed up for the local bocce league in New Jersey at the ripe age of 17... the next youngest player was over 60 years old. The two Irish boys squared off week in and week out against Vinnie's, Sal's, Tony's, and Frankie's, while they sipped Chianti in the parking lot we shotgunned cans of Keystone light. Fortunately the older gentleman liked our style and our balls and they took the time to teach us the game and it never left us.

THE HOT LUNCH ERA… Fast Forward to 2006

Jimmy has recently graduated Catholic University while Tim finished his degree from GW. They both learn of the DC Bocce league that is forming and combine groups of friends to form what would be known as the Hot Lunch. Hot lunch was also known throughout the league as the crown royal team, we could be spotted in our purple polo at the bar and the fields. Crown Royal donated the polo’s (See picture) after multiple calls and letters that detailed our love for their tasty beverage as well as the marketing exposure that DC Bocce Provides.

Hot lunch had an incredible run spread across three seasons, every year making pushes deep into the playoffs while maintaining top 10 status during the regular season.

Hot Lunch was consistently the loudest team in Garfield park and one year earned the award for the most social team. The money was donated to the rebuilding of Eastern Market, the proximity of the market to the parks and our love for fresh vegetables inspired the act and we are excited to see the market stand tall once again. Hot lunch also had it’s own internal award system, the voting for which can be found at http://freeonlinesurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=2ehtbqb47wmynt9307604.

In our final season Hot Lunch found what can only be described as the single greatest song ever written about the District of Columbia. If you’ve never had the good fortune to play us in a match you may not be aware of the DC Clap so please take a moment to follow this link and rep your city http://youtube.com/watch?v=li8nUG_l6JA. After losing 2 players from the DC area and having the remaining 4 split between Tuesday and Wednesday night in our return for the ’08 season we made the executive decision to change our name over to DC’s #1 anthem.

THE DC CLAP… Not just an STD

When DC Clap spun off from the Lunch we were fortunate to have two other experienced rollers available in free agency. Jon Zackey (Parrothead Pinseekers ’07) and DJ Saul (Parrothead Pinseekers ‘07) were introduced to the league through Hot Lunch (Porky Piggers ’07 were also a HL recruited team). After a great showing in their inaugural year we knew that they were exactly the type of players that would embody the DC Clap and the boost we would need to win our first championship. We held tryouts for the remaining two spots on the squad and could not be happier with the results. In our first week rookie Jack Gaynor won “pallina of the game” and Adam Cable showed incredible potential.

NEW NAME = NEW LOOK

Because we are a team committed to the community (see Eastern Market donation above), we focused our sponsorship search on organizations that share our passion for the district. We are pleased to announce the landmark Ben’s chili bowl agreed to a partnership and provided the CLAP with Ben’s chili bowl T-shirts (See below with SPACEBONK, INC) as well as funded the purchase of their logo screen printed on the league shirts.