Cornhole may be considered a relaxing activity; many have played while in the backyard with their parents or at family functions. However, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater club cornhole team has taken the casual and competitive sides of cornhole to the James R. Connor University Center at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Oct 10-11.
“The previous president, Dylan, started the club, he just had a passion for cornhole,” club vice president Emma Freeman said. “He previously went to tournaments around and it was getting really public. He felt the urge to take it to the college level and he thought he could bring it to Whitewater to have a representation.”
(Isabel Beasley)
The cornhole community event took place at the Hamilton Room on the 10th at 4 p.m. It consisted of club members and students at UW-Whitewater to play casually for a cash prize and was promoted by Warhawk Alley. Students and club members would come in teams of two to play in double elimination or just casually play with one another. The club usually does practice tournaments by recording their performance on a score board and also determining who goes to tournaments.
“It’s a fun activity and I’ve done it since I was little,” sophomore human performance major Grace Beatty said. “I got told there was a club here by my friends and everyone was so welcoming. I have been in the club for a couple weeks and I want to keep learning my skills. I have two more years of college left and I’m going to try my best.”
As the club started to grow and practice more, they set up for their competitive home tournament on the 11th. This event had competitors from Oklahoma State University, Winthrop University, East Carolina University, Adrian College and UW-W.
(Isabel Beasley)
“The college meets that we have are all the same layout, there’s a singles tournament, doubles tournament and then a teams tournament,” said Club President Connor Neff. “The winners of each event, like today, they’ll get a free entry to the huge college tournament in Myrtle Beach.”
This home tournament resulted with Winthrop University taking first in the singles, with UW-W taking second place in doubles.
The cornhole club has come a long way with being a club sport, they have been in contact with UW-La Crosse about having a tournament. The club got recognized as a sport last spring semester which provided the cornhole with funding to travel. They have been working with the growing number of participants to travel to Knoxville, at the University in Tennessee, to compete with four other colleges to in hopes advance to national level.