fundraiser

By John McCallum Splash Correspondent

If you’ve never heard of or played cornhole, or are a seasoned veteran competing in some of the many leagues created for the game in the region, Saturday, Aug. 19, is your chance to either observe, learn or improve your skills — and earn bragging rights over other players and neighbors — in the sport.

The fourth annual Liberty Lake Throw Down Community Cornhole Tournament is taking place from 1 – 8 p.m. on the tennis courts at Orchard Park, intersection of Indiana and Harvest Parkway north of Interstate 90 in Liberty Lake. The tournament is for cornhole players from skilled to beginners of all ages, with proceeds supporting the HUB Sports Center, a Liberty Lake 501c3 nonprofit “with a purpose to provide events that have a positive impact on youth and the community.”

The tournament will not only raise funds for the HUB, but, thanks to a number of local sponsors such as title sponsor Justus Bag Company and others including Avista, Banner Bank, Baker Construction, Liberty Lake Lashes and Oxford Suites –Spokane Valley, is offering cash prizes to winners of three different divisions. The Sand Bagger Division is an open, competitive division with a $1,000 grand prize for the winning team.

There are also two “social divisions,” with the Social Bagger Division offering a $300 grand prize to the winning team while the Mini Bagger Social Division for players 13 years old and younger provides $50 to the winning team. All entries include a Throw Down T-shirt, with players allowed to play on one team only.

“Our biggest division is going to be our social division,” HUB Program Director Ryan Barbieri said, adding the tournament typically registers 80 – 100 teams.

The competition will follow game rules established by the American Cornhole Organization (ACG). The cornhole boards, slightly elevated pieces of wood built to specific dimensions with a hole at the upper end, are placed 27 feet apart, with two-person teams and both players playing one board at a time in designated lanes.

Each player has four bags to pitch underhanded at the board. Play continues until all players have pitched their bags, alternating between players, and then walking to the end of their lane to the other board, taking score and resuming pitching back to the other board.

Games are played to 21 points. Scoring is one point (a “woody”) for each bag that remains on the cornhole board, and three points (a

“cornhole”) for any bag that passes through the hole. Cancellation scoring is used, with points of one player canceling out points of their opponent in each round.

The game itself has been around for decades, and likely centuries; played under other names such as “bean bag toss,” “lawn toss” and “tailgate toss” (for you football fans) to name a few. The origins of cornhole are a bit murkier than their known incarnations, with one origin story placing its beginnings in 14th-century Germany with a cabinet maker named Matthias Kuepermann, according to the website Cornhole Worldwide.

Kuepermann noticed a group of young boys playing a game of pitching rocks into a groundhog’s hole. Concerned for the children’s safety (and maybe the groundhog’s), Kuepermann used his carpentry skills to create a game board instead of an animal hole, and use small bags of corn — the vegetable often served as a weight during this time period — instead of rocks.

The game’s development in America is also speculative, with several sources indicating Native Americans played a version of the game tossing around animal bladders filled with dried beans. Other sources credit farmers in the Midwest with developing a version of the game for family entertainment purposes.

It is known that in 1883, a patent (US Patent 285,396) was granted to Heyliger Adams De Windt for a game strongly resembling today’s version of cornhole. The game was called “Parlor Quoits,” but used a square hole instead of a round one.

De Windt sold his rights to the game to a toy manufacturer, which developed the modern version of the game over time. A story in the September 1974 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine on how to build your own cornhole board helped spread the game further into backyards, barbecues and tailgate parties, with ESPN fanning the popularity flames further by covering the ACG national championships, first on ESPN3 online in July 2016 and then by broadcasting on ESPN2 in 2017.

Locally, the Liberty Lake Thrown Down tournament began in 2020. Barbieri said an individual who loved playing the game proposed the idea, with the HUB picking up organizing the tournament in 2021. The tournament also features activities outside of competition for spectators and players alike, such as a beer garden for adults provided by Trailbreaker Cider.

Registration is provided online at the HUB’s website, and ends Aug. 8. Fees are $30 for mini-bagger teams, $50 for social bagger and $75 for sand bagger teams. Funds raised support the HUB’s after school programs and police activities leagues, to name a few of the nonprofits many opportunities for area youth.

“We’ve got quite a few teams signed up now,” Barbieri said. “But we’re still looking for more teams to play.”

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