Greg Collins
I am ACL Pro Greg Collins from the West Conference and this is my story of how I became a professional cornhole player for the American Cornhole League. Started playing competitively in 2018 at the age of 58. I Live in the Central Valley of California, in a small farming town called Escalon. I work in the Director of Sales for All West Select Sires which provides genetics to dairy and beef producers. In October of 2018, my wife, Tamara saw on Facebook, her friends, Maybelle and Paul Abplanalp playing cornhole and inquired to when and where. That night we joined up with the Manteca league and we haven't looked back since. I remember my first Regional tournament in West Sacramento, it flamed a desire to really build my game. We would often drive into the San Francisco Bay area to play in locals and regionals with ACL pro Blake Demale, Nick Renevitz, Ken Jones and Brett Holland all highly skilled players, they pushed my game. 2019 I competed in my first King and Queen competition in Madera, CA and also went to Spencer McKenzie's Throw Down and placed well in the lower bracket partnering with Raymond Thomas. That was my first experience around many pros, it was very inspiring. In November 2019, I played at my 1st conference in Las Vegas and was noticed by Richard Morgan and a couple months later Mark Pryor invited me to play as part of Team Ultra. I then went to my first National in Florida in January 2020. Then Covid hit and messed up the chase for many of us. I went to Cleveland only to have it cancelled. I did go to the Final Chase, in Rock Hill.
20/21 is my first year as a pro. Mark Pryor, Ultra Cornhole will be sponsoring me this season. The bags I throw best and most are Widow-B's because of the two sided options they give you. Slick side is fast but not to fast and the slow side gives a soft landing block. I will be teaming up with Rudy Ai to make our chase. We both started within 6 months of each other and live only about 45 minutes apart. We regularly play in the same clubs together, many times we have partnered and are at most all Western conference events together. We approach the game similarly with solid steady heads and a never give up resolve .
I have never believed in luck. I believe you develop your game by playing smart, practicing hard and competing against challenging players. It's fun. That's why you'll hear me say "Have fun" at the start of a game. I use the Bible verse Proverbs 27:17 as my motto "As iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens the countenance of another..." I try to do this all day long not only in my game but in work and relationships also. So there you have it a little about me.
