Cornhole community: Family, picnic fun game expands to year-round social activity that benefits charities
If you’ve been to a picnic, graduation party, stadium tailgate event or virtually any summertime outdoor gathering, you’ve likely experienced cornhole.
But not like this.
Two county organizations — simply named Slippery Rock Cornhole and Saxonburg Cornhole — have taken this basic backyard game to a whole new level.
“It started for us about three years ago,” said Brian “B.A.” Allison, president of Slippery Rock Cornhole. “I started playing like everyone else starts, in the yard with family and friends. Some people told me about Penn-Ohio Cornhole in Hermitage, so I went to check it out.
“It was incredible. They play inside and people come from all over the place to participate. You pay a fee to play and the money gets paid back out. I wanted to get something like that going here.”
So Slippery Rock Cornhole was formed. It plays each Monday night at the Slippery Rock Golf and Events Center. A year later, Saxonburg Cornhole got started at the Saxonburg Fireman’s Club. It plays on Tuesday nights during the Lenten season — accommodating the Fireman’s Club fish fries — then will move back to its traditional Wednesday night gatherings.
Many people play at both facilities. Depending on the number of players who show up, the games may go on for five hours, or so.
“It didn’t take us long to grow,” Allison said. “When we first started, we had maybe 10 players. Within a month, we had 30 to 40 people in here. We routinely get more than that now.”
Cornhole players travel a long way to get to both communities. The cornhole boards are provided and everyone brings his or her own bags to toss. Slippery Rock and Saxonburg draw players from West Middlesex, DuBois, Chicora, Franklin, Butler, Evans City and Youngstown, among other areas.
Saxonburg draws players from Fox Chapel, Tarentum, Natrona Heights and West View.
“People will drive from two hours out, or farther, to play this game in this type of setting,” Saxonburg Cornhole president Paul Rankin said. “If you’re willing to drive that far, you could find a cornhole gathering like this pretty much every night of the week.
“Much of our group is family-oriented. My sister, nephew and mother all play here. We’ll get 30 to 40 players a night.”
Tim Malis is one of the cornhole participants in both groups.
“It’s the people,” Malis said as his reason for coming. “The socialization is even better than the matches themselves. I love this. They’re fun nights out, and you meet a whole new set of friends.”
Scoring is kept electronically through a system known as Scoreholio and as many as six cornhole matches are played simultaneously.
And if newcomers don’t have their own bags to play with?
“We get them bags,” Allison said. “Everyone is welcome.”
Chicora resident Jarrett Haug started a kids cornhole league known as the Cornhole Cubs, as part of the Slippery Rock group. Basically a 15-and-under group, they get together to play on random Sundays.
“The thought of starting a kids league hit my head one week and we started the program two weeks later,” Haug said. “That’s how quickly this stuff takes off. We had 20 to 30 kids last year, 15 to 20 so far this year.
“Those numbers will grow. Not only do the kids compete against each other and learn about the game, sometimes they come and join in with the adults. That kind of exposure and interaction is great for the kids.
“A good mixture of people come out and play — business owners, tattoo artists, construction workers — it makes for great socializing,” Haug added.
Logan Burkett, 18, of Leechburg, has been playing cornhole for a year. He is a regular participant in Saxonburg.
“I played sports in high school and needed a way to feed my competitive spirit,” Burkett said. “Cornhole does that for me. You get good at this through repetition and steadiness.
“Anyone of any size or gender, able-bodied or handicapped, can effectively play this game. It is truly meant for everybody.”
Freeport resident Cindy McCrea who played for a USA Cornhole team two years ago, travels all over to play the game.
“Cornhole people are the nicest people,” she said. “I’ll play five times this week. It never gets tiring. I’ve never met a bad person at any of these events. Everybody’s friendly, everybody’s helpful.”
They are charitable people as well.
Allison designed logo shirts for the Slippery Rock and Saxonburg groups. Slippery Rock has a raccoon image as part of its logo while Saxonburg has an eagle.
Proceeds from Slippery Rock’s first jersey sales went to Cody and Kailee Croll, whose son, Karson, was born with spina bifida. The second group of sales went to Maine, to help families victimized by a bowling alley shooting.
“We sold 75 jerseys with our first order and nearly doubled that total with the second order,” Allison said. “All told, we’ve sold over 300 jerseys. The proceeds are always helping a charitable effort of some sort. We’re not looking to profit there.”
Both organizations are involved in charitable cornhole events. Rankin said Saxonburg Conhole has done events to raise funds for the firemen and Saxonburg police, as well as It’s All About the Warrior and other veteran events.
“I’m always interested in fundraisers that way and the cornhole community is very giving,” Rankin, a veteran himself, said. “We raised more than $40,000 for a person with brain cancer at one of our events.”
Slippery Rock Cornhole has done tournaments to help cancer patients, youth baseball, the Children’s Advocacy Center in Butler and a scholarship fund in the name of a little boy who died from cardiac issues.
“We've got four benefits scheduled this year,” Allison said. “One of our themes is ‘Together, we win.’ That’s what the cornhole community is all about — if someone’s in need, we want to reach out and help.
“Alaska, California, Texas … We’ve helped fund things there. We receive requests for help all the time. Everybody in our group responds,” Allison said.
“We’re not just about playing cornhole and having fun. We’re about making a positive impact wherever we can.”
