CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The bags will be flying in Charleston on Friday and Saturday.
American Cornhole Organization (ACO) is hosting its season opener ‘major’ event in Charleston at the Charleston Coliseum & Convention Center. The ACO will host its World Champions of Cornhole 17 on July 25-30, 2022 in Branson, Missouri.
“We try to bring in the best players from around the country to compete for head to head. We have a lot of our ACO pros in town that are trying to earn their way into the world championships which are being played in Missouri next July,” Frank Geers, Founder and CEO of ACO told 580-WCHS on Friday.
Established in 2005, and headquartered in Camp Dennison, Ohio, ACO is the World Governing Body of the sport of Cornhole, offering Official Cornhole Rules, certified products, tournament listings, and comprehensive information about cornhole events.
Geers said he took a leap of faith in 2005, creating the organization for the sport he loved. Since then, he said it has taken off. Numerous cornhole tournaments are now shown on national television and Geers said the ACO is working on its own deal.
“Recently getting on national television has certainly helped increase and add fuel to the fire. But it’s been a surge that has been going on for a long time. We’ve been on a steady growth mode for the last 17 seasons,” Geers said.
The ACO Charleston Major is held at 9 a.m. each day at the Charleston Coliseum & Convention Center. The prize pool for the ACO Charleston Major is $5,000.
Geers said there are around 250 players in Charleston from representing 14 states. Divisions include women’s singles, senior singles, junior singles, world singles and doubles division, co-ed division, even a quad division
This is the tour’s 8th stop in Charleston and Geers said it’s become a favorite location on the schedule.
“The city itself is a lot of fun. We love being in a downtown area where our players can stay in hotels, walk around and enjoy the restaurants. It being a river community is always nice,” Geers said.