New cornhole league taking off in Saskatoon

Sports in Saskatchewan are usually dominated by hockey, baseball, football, soccer and basketball.

But the game of cornhole seems to be starting to take the province by storm – there’s even a new league in Saskatoon.

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Kassigan Naicker, co-owner of the Bridge City League, said the organization was started by a group of work friends who discovered a shared love for the game.

“A bunch of us really got into it, so much so we started buying boards and bags,” said Naicker. “Then we found out there’s a league going on in Regina … We were like ‘Hey, let’s start up something in Saskatoon.’”

Regulated cornhole bags are used in the Bridge City League. (Will Mandzuk/650CKOM)

The league launched at the beginning of August, and once word started spreading that there was a cornhole league up and running in Saskatoon, Naicker said more and more people began to show up, including players from well outside the city.

“We have people from Warman (and) Prince Albert,” said Naicker. “There’s people all over that like to play.”

The league started with 12 people and now sees close to 30 people competing.

The game sees players throw bean bags at an inclined board with a hole in the centre, with points awarded for getting a bag onto the board or through the hole. Games of cornhole go up to 21, and the league uses a program called scoreholio to keep track.

Cornhole is typically an outdoor sport, but the Bridge City League will continue sinking cornhole bags through the winter. Naicker said the league has a brand new partnership that allows them to play indoors.

“We’re actually going to be running our league out of Sports On Tap,” said Naicker.

Jacob Sirrs, who competes in the league, explained what attracted him to the game.

“At work it was something to do; it was a fun environment,” said Sirrs. “It was easy to do. Get a couple of people together and have some fun.”

Sirrs said the best thing about cornhole is that everyone can play it.

“Cornhole’s a great time. It gets a lot of people out,” said Sirrs. “You can do it outdoors, indoors, it’s fun for all ages, and it’s a good, wholehearted sport everyone can play together.”

While the Saskatoon organization is just getting off the ground, Kevin Bittman, president of Saskatchewan Cornhole Association, said the league in Regina has about 800 regular players, and sees 40 to 50 different people at each event.