WAPAKONETA, OH (WLIO) - "I had an idea a couple of months ago about bringing together some teams and I really wanted to put together a battle. My husband has been doing it with some other little clubs and a lot of people were like 'hey, we wanna do this battle too.' So I'm like, I am going to create a Battle of the Teams cornhole." St. Mary's native Kimberli Glass plays cornhole at the highest level. After careful planning along with fellow cornhole enthusiasts, she was able to gather many of the Midwest's elite teams to square off in Wapakoneta.
"We ended up getting 17 teams today which you see behind me so we have 170 players," she said. "I've got a team out of Michigan, and I got two teams from Indiana and the rest are just different areas of Ohio."
Singles player Ryan Bishop says, "it's great it brings a lot of people together. There's not a huge amount of money on the line so I think people can have a little more fun with it. They're not taking it serious, a lot of guys we know each other because we traveled to each other's tournaments so it's just fun to go back and forth. Have a little good trash-talking, a good tune with everyone. I think everybody's going to start to come together for stuff like this."
The love of cornhole is what brought many out-of-state players to the Auglaize County fairgrounds. Doubles player Sergio Ramirez and Steven Ochoa is thrilled to see veteran and rookie players come together.
"You know what's good about this sport is that people from all over the country always support each other. It worked out, we're both fathers, we had a day where in between fatherhood we could get down here and play," said Ramirez.
"You got the great players involved with the players that are just starting out. Players that are not playing at the elite level but they're allowed to play in events like today, they can play with the better players. And all of them in the same building is just great to see," said Ochoa.
Cornhole is definitely a sport that is growing in West Central Ohio and with events like this it will keep expanding.
"I actually do hope that the sport grows," said Glass. "Not only with our battle from holding this today but I also reach out to our youth at least in the St. Mary's, Celina, and Wapakoneta area and I'm really trying to grow the youth to get interested to hopefully go through their youth and their teens and then as an adult play a little bit more competitively."
