Staring at his winning formation of beanbags, all Corey Collins had to do was protect his cornhole.
Collins and his teammate Courtney Blevins had scored enough points on their beanbag tosses to win, but the pair had to wait to see if their opponents could land a bag on the board to cancel out any of their points.
The enemy bag hit just in front of the cornhole surrounded by Collins’ beanbags and skipped harmlessly off the board.
“Ye-heh-ess!” Collins yelled, raising his arms in victory.
On Wednesday, Collins and other students at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga started the preliminary rounds of a campuswide tournament of a game called “cornhole.” On the same day, Chattanooga State Community College held its own tournament of the oddly named lawn sport.
The finals for the UTC tournament will be Saturday at the First Tennessee Pavilion before the Mocs football game.
The objective of the game is for players to reach 21 points faster than their opponents by tossing beanbags at a 3-foot-long target 30 feet away. Landing a beanbag on the board nets the tosser one point and ringing the 6-inch “cornhole” — the bag going completely through — earns three points.
“I could say there’s science I put behind it, but I don’t take the time,” said sophomore Jake Thetford, a double engineering major at UTC, between tosses. “If you want to get serious, there’s some intense strategy.”
Cornhole players can be found at tailgating and outdoor events across the country. Serious competitors organize tournaments that culminate in a national championship, set in Louisville, Ky., in February, according to Eric Hinerman, manager of official development for the American Cornhole Organization.
Hinerman said the game started in the Cincinnati area and got its name from the beanbags, which originally were filled with corn. He started American Cornhole as a seller of beanbags and game boards in 2004, and founded the governing body a short time later. The group now has 5,000 members and official tournament organizers in 20 states, he said.
“The game has taken big strides,” he said, quickly correcting himself to call cornhole a sport. “Some people think it can be as big as golf or something, but realistically, it could be like darts or bowling.”
The Chattanooga State tournament had about 30 participants, according to director of student activities Justin Booker. He said the school decided to hold the tournament because of the game’s broad appeal.
“It’s something that everybody can participate in,” Booker said. “You don’t have to be athletic; you don’t have to go to the gym all of the time.”
Pat Miles, assistant director of the office of alumni affairs at UTC, said he was impressed by the play Wednesday.
“I look on in amazement, and I’m like ‘Seriously? You just sank three in a row,'” he said. “You have too much time on your hands.”