Shawn Smith
ACL Pro for Atlantic Conference
I am Shawn Smith ACL Pro from the Atlantic Conference and this is my story of how and when I started playing cornhole and worked my way up to an ACL Pro. I started playing competitive cornhole in 2016 in the ACO and switched over to the ACL in 2017. In 2016 I also introduced my brother Ryan Smith to cornhole at the competitive level. During the 2016-2018 seasons, I never played in enough tournaments and wasn’t committed enough, to really see how good I could be. So basically, I never played a full season until the 2018-2019 season in the ACL. So at the end of the ACL World Championships in 2017-2018, I committed myself to play in 1 regional a month, 3 conference events and 2 nationals for the following season. I started finding time on my lunch breaks this past season to work on stance, grips, follow through and just getting as many reps as I could in 30 minutes. If I had a couple hours on the weekend to practice, I would get it done. My 3 year old daughter, 5 year old daughter and wife are really important to me, so I couldn’t commit to more tournaments than I did. I still was able to finish ranked #103 in the nation overall (without maxing out in local points) for this past season and proved as an advanced player, I can throw with the pros and anyone ranked top #160 in the nation.
