The American Cornhole Organization is the World Wide Governing Body of cornhole, a sport which can be traced back to the 14th Century. This month, the ACO will be in Bossier City for its inaugural Shreveport-Bossier Cornhole Major Tournament.
The ACO was founded in 2005 by Frank Gers. Since then, the organization has hosted tournaments for cornhole players around the world, and Gers and the ACO have reinvented the game.
SOT point system Each player has four bags. They rotate pitching back and forth until all eight bags are thrown. Four by each team or each player. You receive three points if it goes in the hole, that’s call a “cornhole,” and you receive one point if it goes on the board, which is called a “woody.” 21 points in a game wins the game. You’re not allowed to cross the line in front of the board. Usually, it’s just marked by understanding where the front edge of the board is. You’re not allowed to have the bag touch the ground and then bounce up onn the board. That would be called a “dirty” ; it needs to be “swept off,” taken off the board. And those are the basic rules to the game.
Not only have they created a thorough point system and division structure that can be used anywhere, but they have creatively innovated new, long-lasting equipment. One example is the bags used in the game. Rather than being filled with corn kernels that degrade and lessen the weight of the bag, the ACO found a plastic alternative. The new bags are tournament certified.
In Bossier, the ACO will host over 100 players and over 50 spectators, April 5-6. The tournament will host live music and catering for its attendees, and, of course, lots of cornhole.
SOT divisions On Friday morning we have juniors, seniors, and womens’, those are our singles events. Our juniors is a free division, they have to be seventeen years or younger to compete. And we have co-ed division that goes on. We have a “big blind” where you don’t know who your partner is going to be until it’s randomly assigned to you, so somebody from Louisiana could grab a partner from California. And then the main thing on Saturday is singles and doubles. Those are the most important world divisions, the biggest divisions.
Gers says the ACO aims to create a fun space for all players, whether they are gaining points for the World Championships of Cornhole in July, or coming to hang out with other enthusiasts.
SOT unique We’ve got men and women competing against each other, head-to-head. And that’s one of the cool things about the sport of cornhole. It’s, you know, going head-to-head with anybody. We’ve got 12 year-olds competing with 80 year-olds, on the same level, too. Cornhole’s just a fun game in that way, a little bit different than a lot of other sports. The sport of cornhole is built around tailgating. You know, people that love to tailgate, pretty much love to play cornhole, because at cornhole events, you’re able to eat good food, if you just like listening to music and if you just like people in general, cornhole is a very social event. You know, 99.9% of everybody is out there to have fun. And that’s our job, is to make sure we have fun, drink beers, listen to good music, and play a sport that we all love.