My name is Lance and I am a 37 year old car salesman from Ohio. I am a single father of three awesome kids and addicted to cornhole. This is how I am balancing life, work and my addiction to the game that most of my friends don’t understand, but I don’t talk to those people anymore.
The Start of My Addiction
I started playing cornhole just like most people, playing in the backyard with friends, going around and winning a few summer festival tournaments, thinking hey I am pretty good at this. Well, that all changed in February of 2019 when I joined a league in Wauseon Ohio that is hosted by Rick Shadday. I didn’t even own a set of bags yet, besides the corn ones sitting in the corner of my garage, that some rodent eats the corn out of every winter. That same month I joined the American Cornhole League (ACL) and threw in my first regional tournament, and I was hooked.
To me, the hardest part about playing cornhole at the next level is balancing life, the time with family, work and the game. I work from 8-6pm Monday thru Friday and every other Saturday 9-3pm. I am a single father, and have my kids (10, 7 and 3) half the time. Just like anything else in life, if you want to become a next level cornhole player, you have to put in the time and commitment to doing so. I am not there yet, but I am improving my game.
The Balancing Act
Here is what a typical week, after work, looks like for me.
Monday night is a $5 blind draw at the 5 Span Inn, a great little bar on the river, about 15 mins away from work. We play there till the sun goes down. Once the leagues in Wauseon start on July 15th, I will leave work, and drive the hour to Wauseon instead of the blind draw.
Tuesday night is typically a league night, when no league play is going on, we play $2 dollar cash games with neighbors. My neighbor has installed enough LED lights between his house and the garage that you need sunglasses to play after dark.
Wednesday and Thursday nights I have the kids and enjoy the time spent with them.
Friday night, every other week I have my kids. The weeks I don’t, I drive the 45 minutes to Grandlake Cornhole Club, in St, Mary’s and play in a couple blind draws there that are hosted by Roger Glass.
Saturday’s are the toughest days for me to balance because I either have my kids or I am working till 3pm. Saturdays are also when most of the tourneys are held. I try to make at least on regional tourney a month during the ACL season, so if its close enough and kid friendly I will bring my kids along, or trade a day at work. Sometimes I get lucky and a tourney wont start till 4 or 5 pm and I can make it.
Sunday, every once in a while, I get lucky and I don’t have my kids the same weekend or someone is hosting an ACL Regional. But it always seems that the ones on Sundays are about 4 hours away. If I can find a partner that wants to leave at 6 am, I will go that. The same thing with local festival tourneys, if I can find one on a Sunday I try to throw in it. If not, there is always Sunday Funday with the neighbors and $2 dollar cash games.
In a typical week I will work around 50 hours, spend 3 or 4 days with my children and drive 200-500 miles and play between 20-30 hours of cornhole. All in all, its really not a bad life. We are all busy, running around trying to make ends meet, working, spending time with family, getting the kids to organized sports, taking care of pets and tons of other things. But what does balancing life look like for you? If you love something, like we love cornhole, you will make the sacrifices and find the time to throw bags and go to tournaments. For us, cornhole is life!
