Cornhole tourney engages teens in lively night of activity, friendly competition

The bags were flying in Glenrock on Wednesday Nov. 19. That night Glenrock Junior Senior High School hosted a cornhole tournament in their common area for seventh through twelfth grade students, an unusual occurrence for the small town high school .

“We’re all busy at this time of year and it was nice for the kids to get together,” Andi Nelson, a SPED (special education) teacher at the school said regarding why they decided to have the event be such a wide age-range.

The common area was lined with boards for the various teams to play on, allowing multiple teams to play simultaneously of various ages and skill sets. The students made donations to the local food pantry as participation fees.

The rules of the games were first to 21, and if a team went over that mark they dropped back down to 11 points and had to work their way back up. 

The winner of the night was the team comprised of Kiley Smith and Taitum Helmey, both upperclassmen at GHS. Along their path to the championship – which earned them their choice of candy bar – the two completed not one, but two big victories. 

In the first competition they beat a team they had faced in the past and been defeated by, much to the chagrin of their competitor who had been trash talking them the entire match. 

In the finals, which included multiple busts, sending both teams back to 11, the girls completed two separate comebacks, celebrating big moments along the way.

“We wanted to win so bad, we were like, ‘We have to’. And it’s crazy how you actually get nervous playing cornhole,” Smith said of how she felt to complete the comebacks and achieve victory.

Dozens of children had the opportunity to have fun and engage in a lively night of competition that was truly successful.