Cornhole
Written by Nathan Steinagel, Jacob Patterson
Photos by courteous of Cornhole team
Written by Nathan Steinagel, Jacob Patterson
Photos by courteous of Cornhole team
February 6, 2023
At ThunderRidge, we have a lot of good sports teams. We have Basketball where we are the back to back state champs, the 11-2 Football team, and even Cross Country had some standouts this year. But one up and coming sport that gets overlooked is Cornhole. This Cornhole team has won back to back championships not just in the state, but in the whole nation! That's a really impressive achievement! These players are very skilled and talented at Cornhole and spend lots of time practicing. We interviewed the players on the the Cornhole team on their thoughts.
We first interviewed Cooper Bingham (12). When we asked him what motivated him to start playing cornhole, he said, “I think there's a lot to like about the team aspect and being able to work and meet new people, and the fact that you can always get better and there is always room to improve and get better, which kinda keeps me going”
These guys have to be improving consistently to be competing with the top corn hole players. Just like any other sport, you need to practice to get better. Cornhole is a sport full of technique and precision and you have to be exact every throw. Your hand motion of the toss has to be very exact every time so you can score points and get the bag in the hole or on the board. These people are the best high schoolers in the whole U.S, so you know they are constantly practicing and helping each other out.
“How did it feel when you guys won?
“It was exciting. I mean we had been there last year and won as well, so it was kinda a ‘been there done that’ type of feeling, but it was still exciting to win it again and prove that we’re still at the high level we showed last year.”
I can see how this would be really exciting and it must have been really exciting to be playing at the highest stage for High Schoolers. During the tournament, they came in wanting to win again. These guys were prepared for this level of competition. Most of the teams there had been practicing for about 2 years. Obviously, since they won last year, ThunderRidge came in knowing what they were in for. They were still not the favored team in this tournament despite their experience. But they shocked everyone there and won the whole tournament for the second time in a row. We ended the interview by asking how the team helps and supports each other
“It’s a lot of just having good people to practice against, and having good partners on your skill level. And people that support you.”
You know that these guys have some tough competition against each other when they practice. It probably helps them improve a ton. This team must have really good chemistry and be great friends based on how good the team is and how well they play. You can figure that out based on all of Cooper’s quotes. They show how much this team works for what they want to accomplish.
All in all, Cornhole should be talked about more. It takes lots of dedication, practice, and team chemistry to orchestrate a great team like we have here at ThunderRidge.