Drew Brown
ACL Pro for SouthEast ConferenceI am ACL Pro Drew Brown from SouthEast Conference the and this is my story of how I became a professional cornhole player at the American Cornhole League. I grew up playing baseball year round in high school. I was a very aggressive pitcher/3rd baseman and had a passion for winning all my life. During my senior year I contracted mononucleosis and was told by doctors that it was the worst case they had seen in almost 35 years of practice. I went from 155 lbs to 125 lbs in just over a month and they rushed me to the hospital twice within that month to be sure I was getting the right amount of fluids. I also missed my last month of my senior year of high school but I was fortunate enough to be released on the day of graduation and was given the "OK" from doctors to attend the ceremony. After high school I went on to play college ball at Bethany College, but quickly knew I didn't have the strength that I once had. In an effort to focus on my health and devote more to my studies, I transferred to a school closer to home. I needed something to keep my competitive edge going and that is when I turned to cornhole. My cousin, Wes Phillipson, brought boards to our thanksgiving dinner one year and needless to say I was very much a beginner player. He beat me in every game that we played that year and I there was only one way I knew how to respond. PRACTICE. All winter long and through the summer I practiced everyday, even tying the chandelier to the banister with a rope in my mom's house when it was cold out so I could play indoors. I wanted to make sure at the next family function I wouldn't be able to be beat so that I had bragging rights at the dinner table. Sure enough my dedication paid off. So much so that I thought that I was one of the best in the state at that point taking down local tournaments in my hometown. After that I started googling tournaments and I would take my buddies CJ and Jake Blanchard to play cornhole across the state just to play in tournaments. That was when I ran into the unstoppable duo of Matt Guy and Randy Atha in Dublin Ohio at the Irish festival. They beat us 21-0 but I quickly received word on who these two were in the cornhole world. That was who I wanted to be. This is where a new chapter began and my search to become one of the household names in cornhole started. I knew I had a lot of work to do to get where I needed to become one of the best. During one of my google searches, I found a tournament in West Virginia and got introduced to my good friend, Ted Dillon. He is the one that I give a lot of credit to, for he was the first person to take a chance on me as a player and be my partner. It also helped that he ran an abundance of regional tournaments where I slowly started to meet and play against today's most familiar faces. Now after over 10 years of playing against the best in the world, I believe I am ready to prove to everyone that I have what it takes.
