Cornhole state tournament makes debut at DairyFest

MARSHFIELD – Dave Uhrman has always had a fondness for the game of American Cornhole known by many simply as bag toss.

One day, he was glancing at the American Cornhole Organization website and came across an interesting fact: there were state cornhole tournaments.

He said he saw there was one being held at DairyFest in Marshfield, and the Fond du Lac resident knew then he would be in attendance.

"I saw that and I never realized there was anything like that before, something centralized like that," Uhrman, 65, said. "It's pretty cool."

It was exactly what Matt McLean, director of the Marshfield Convention & Visitors Bureau, had in mind when he decided to bring a state cornhole tournament to Marshfield.

"I talked with (ACO President) Frank (Geers) and asked him if there had ever been a state tournament in cornhole in the state of Wisconsin and he said no, so I thought, Why not bring it to Marshfield?'" McLean said. "We can't exactly host the Final Four, but this is something to bring people to the city of Marshfield."

It is the first state cornhole tournament in Wisconsin and there are five categories with the senior, women's and junior competitions held Friday in the Marshfield Ice Arena at Marshfield Fairgrounds Park, 405 E. 17th St. On Saturday is the singles and doubles tournaments, with the winners getting to compete at the American Cornhole Organization World Championships in Knoxville, Tennessee, on July 7 to 11.

Cornhole, also known as bag toss, is a lawn game in which players take turns throwing bags of corn at a raised platform with a hole in the far end. A bag in the hole scores three points, while one on the platform scores one point. Play continues until a team or player scores exactly 21 points.

Part of the appeal of cornhole is the fact that people from ages 8 to 80 can play, Geers said.

Dave Uhrman did not travel to Marshfield for the state tournament alone, coming along with his girlfriend, his brother Eric from West Bend, and grandson Matthew Zoske from Oconomowoc.

The quartet was among many from all over the state ranging from Onalaska to Cedarburg.

That was the hopes of McLean, who got word out about the tournament via billboards and social media.

"We had 15 billboards throughout the state and used Facebook and Twitter and just tried to make as many people aware as we could," McLean said.

"Marshfield is a central city in Wisconsin and is a good location," Geers said. "We hope this is as successful as we think it is going to be. There should be about 80 people competing overall. We hope this brings people to the city of Marshfield and we hope we are around for a long time."

Mitchell A. Skurzewski can be reached at 715-384-3131 ext. 329 or on Twitter @MSkurzewski