Bean bag is more than just a backyard game according to this article from the N.C. Salisbury Post.com

Cornhole game catches on

Tuesday, September 22, 2009 3:00 AM Jimmy Stowe, right, throws in the final matchup of Saturday’s Cornhole Toss Open at South Rowan High School’s stadium, held to raise money for Bible education at South Rowan. Andy Huffman, left, and teammate Richard Yates beat Stowe and his partner Johnny Hines to win the tournament. Huffman and Yates are also state cornhole toss champions. Ryan Honeycutt, left, watches as his competition, Tim Pate, throws a bean bag at a cornhole toss tournament on Saturday. Honeycutt and teammate Adam Jordan eventually beat Pate and his teammate, Jeff Royston, but then lost in the semifinal round against state cornhole toss champions Andy Huffman and Richard Yates.   By Noelle Edwards nedwards@salisburypost.com If you had closed your eyes and walked into South Rowan High School’s stadium on Saturday morning, aside from falling down the stairs, you might have thought you were in the middle of a basketball or baseball game. Or at least a rousing round of tug-o-war. You would have been wrong. The stadium actually played host to a cornhole toss Saturday. Cornhole, as in that game they set up in a carnival midway that involves throwing bean bags at a board with a hole in it. Sixteen teams competed ferociously with one another for the $100 prize. Competitors cheered on their partners with phrases such as “Keep it up,” “Calm down,” and “We got ‘em right where we want ‘em.” They trash talked, making references to people’s mothers. They strategized and calculated, meticulously kept score and charted it with brackets, refreshed themselves with bottles of water and wiped sweat from their foreheads. Pretty intense for a lawn game. The competition was emblematic of a growing cornhole-playing population. A Google search turns up rules, competitions, associations, terminology pages and news. One Facebook group for cornhole — there are several — has more than 104,500 members, and another has nearly 80,000. Official cornhole rules determine that opposing boards must be 27 feet away from each other. Each bean bag that lands in the hole scores three points. Each one to land on the board scores one point. After a player from each team has tossed four bags, the teams — made of two players — count their own points and subtract the higher number from the lower, and that’s the point total of that round, going to the team with the higher points, of course. And it goes on like that until one team scores 21. Teams play for charity sometimes or just pool their money and award the winner the take. Saturday’s tournament raised money for the South Rowan Public School Bible Teaching Association — basically to fund a Bible history elective at South Rowan High School. Each team paid $20 to compete, plus concessions, of which they were strongly encouraged to partake. Bennett Hester, chairman of the association’s board, hoped the organization would walk away with a couple thousand dollars from the day. Pretty good, considering that only a few months prior most of the members of the board had never even heard of cornhole. The idea for the tournament was pastor and board member Steve Sprinkle’s. People in his church play, and he suggested it as a supplement to the organization’s annual golf tournament, held this year on Oct. 24. Pete Kluttz from the association made 10 boards, Sprinkle put them together and painted them a solid color, and his wife, Ann Sprinkle, painted logos of sports teams and the Bible Teaching Association. Just the painting took four or five hours per board, Ann Sprinkle said. Daisy Rodgers, the mother of the group’s treasurer, made the bags for the tournament and extra bags to sell. Hester said he hopes to see more people come if they hold the event again next year, but for the first year he was happy to have so many serious competitors. “It just kind of surprised me,” Hester said. “I’ve been around a long time and I never heard of it.” Tim Pate, who’s been playing about six years, heard of it from his boss, an Ohio native. He said he thinks it’s more of a Midwest game. “Now the Southerners own it,” said Jeff Royston, Pate’s teammate. Several competitors at Saturday’s event were veterans of the sport. Bubba Renken and Mugsy Helms, both of China Grove, came in third place in this year’s state cornhole championship and fourth the year before. “It’s good competition for 30-year-old men,” Renken said. “It’s something you can do in your backyard and your wife won’t fuss at you.” Renken and Helms were topped in state championship play by two other men competing on Saturday. Andy Huffman of China Grove and Richard Yates of Salisbury are the reigning state champions of cornhole, and have been for two years. Apparently they have a knack because they hadn’t really played much before. Yates was driving through Raleigh and heard an announcement on the radio about the state championship tournament and thought it would be fun. And it was. It didn’t hurt that he and Huffman walked away with custom cornhole sets, which sell for $200 or more, after beating 63 teams in 2008 and 95 teams this year. No cash prize for that contest. Saturday’s tournament made them each $50 richer though; they won their way through the bracket, beating the final team in a back-to-back matchup, and became that competition’s champion team as well. Don’t think it was an easy victory, though. A few teams, including the one that came in second place, were made of people from a cornhole troop, of sorts. The Kannapolis Regulators get together and travel the region — as close as their own houses and as far as South Carolina — playing cornhole. They hold tournaments for restaurants that want to drum up business. “We play every Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, sometimes Wednesday,” said Don Mackling, who bills himself their president. “We do it for charity. Plus to help us win money,” said Jason Van Buren. The Kannapolis Regulators had eight people in Saturday’s tournament. They played Friday night until late and were hoping to finish in China Grove early enough to enter a tournament in Charlotte later on Saturday. (For the record, the China Grove contest went long into the afternoon, and the Regulators were fairly involved in the competition, not to mention the cheering and trash talking.) “Where else can you play a sport that you can do it with a beer in your hand?” said Van Buren. So it’s not the NFL. But between the sweating and the spitting, evaluating which boards to play on and which bags to toss — all the bags are a pound, but the players preferred larger and looser ones to those stuffed tightly — and the “ohhhh”-ing and color commentary from spectators, Saturday’s five-hour competition had the tense moments and frequent victories of more traditional sporting games. “You wouldn’t think there’d be this much drama,” Roxanne Johnson, South Rowan Bible teacher, said. “It gets worse when it’s not a church function,” Helms said For this and other backyard games go to:            http://www.cysbackyardsports.com

How’s that for a book title by Texas Bix Bender?  Since I live in Texas, I find this “Cowboy’s Guide to Life” has a wealth of good thoughts that I thought I would pass along to you from time to time.  I realize this blog deals with outdoor games but let’s face it.  This is my blog so I have no problem diverting occasionally.   This Code Of The West sums up my approach to this Blog.  Write it in your heart.  Stand by the Code, and it will stand by you.  Ask no more and give no less than honesty, courage, loyality, generosity and fairness.

From the FT.Wayne Journal Gazette

From time to time I will be giving you game rules pulled from Family Fun Magazine.  Here is one that many of you probably already know but there are always new parents who can benefit from the information.

RED ROVER, RED ROVER

The more the merrier for this outdoor game-perfect foa a gathering of party revelers.

WHAT YOU NEED – Nothing

HOW TO PLAY

1. Divide the kids into two groups and have them line up, holding hands tightly.  The two groups face each other about 20 feet apart.

2. Each side has a caller.  The caller from one side shouts “Red Rover, Red Rover send (name) right over”. If Sally’s name has been called, she runs to the opposite side, aiming for what she thinks will be the weakest connection.  Her goal is to break through the line.  If she succeeds, one person from the opposing side must return with her and join her line.  If she fails. she joins the caller’s side.

3.The caller from the opposite side then shouts, “Red Rover….” and the process continues.  Players can devise sneaky running strategies and use psychological tactics to spice up the game.  Whichever side has the most players at the end of the playing time wins the round.

For a selection of games for the backyard go to: http://www.cysbackyardsports.com

As we enjoy playing our outdoor games in our own backyard we tend to forget about those less fortunate.  This article outlines what many of those “less fortunate” have been able to do

(CNN) — When Katy Wilson was born with Down syndrome, doctors told her mother that the infant likely would never walk or talk.

Katy Wilson says she wants her athletic successes to surprise people and give them hope.

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She sure showed them.

Wilson, now 29, has won two international gold medals in the Special Olympics for her gymnastic abilities. She turns cartwheels for her floor routine and does acrobatics on the balance beam.

She also goes on public speaking tours.

“Most of all, I love doing speeches because I want them [the audience] to be surprised just how good my speeches are,” she said by phone.

Wilson’s story — and countless other stereotype-bending stories like it — is possible in part because of the dogged vision of Eunice Kennedy Shriver and the Special Olympics organization she founded more than four decades ago.

Shriver, who died Tuesday, started the organization as a sports camp for special-needs kids and adults in her backyard in Maryland in 1962. The camp, in part, was inspired by the life of Shriver’s sister, Rosemary Kennedy, who had an intellectual disability.

The Special Olympics has grown from that small camp into a global organization that helps 3 million athletes with Down syndrome, autism and other intellectual disabilities compete for medals in an array of sports.

Her legacy will live in the stories of hope and against-the-odds success she made possible through the Special Olympics. See photos of Eunice Kennedy Shriver »

“She helped forever alter how people with intellectual disabilities are viewed and treated and respected,” said Amie Dugan, a spokeswoman for the Special Olympics. “This is a population that 40 years ago they were beyond marginalized. They were disenfranchised from society.

“It was considered the status quo … to put them in an institution and never think about that again. And she changed all of that. She brought them out into the light.”

An estimated 200 million people in the world live with intellectual disabilities. That population was largely unseen and voiceless in 1968 when Shriver stepped to the microphone to announce the start of the first Special Olympic Games at Chicago’s Soldier Field.

“In ancient Rome, the gladiators went into the arena with these words on their lips,” she told the 1,000 athletes in the stadium. “‘Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.’”

In 2007, the most recent Special Olympics World Summer Games were held in Shanghai, China. More than 7,000 athletes competed.

The sports competitions are held in the winter and summer on four-year intervals, just like the Olympic Games; people from countries as far-flung as Tunisia, Rwanda and Sri Lanka participate in events that include skiing, volleyball and track and field.

Before the program, people with intellectual disabilities were only told what they could not accomplish, said David Tolleson, executive director of the National Down Syndrome Congress.

“Special Olympics emphasizes what folks can do, and it does it in a manner that’s fun and exciting and it offers a sense of community both within the family of those with developmental disabilities as well as with the greater community at large — the volunteers who come in and have some of their misconceptions or preconceptions cast aside when they realize how much people with developmental disabilities truly are capable of,” he said.

The program continues to expand its global reach, but in many places, people with intellectual disabilities lack basic human rights, said Dugan.

Thomas Webb, a Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation fellow who studies public policy and intellectual disability, said it’s still a challenge in the United States to integrate people with disabilities into mainstream society.

No one knows all of the solutions, but Shriver and the Special Olympics have had “significant impact” on peoples’ lives, he said.

Coming from the athletic Kennedy family, Shriver realized the wide-ranging benefits of sports, said Dugan.

“It’s just a fun way to bring people with intellectual disabilities and their non-disabled peers together,” she said, “because everyone enjoys competition and fun and exercise and getting out there.”

The fun translates into experience that helps Special Olympians build communities of friends and succeed in the workplace, advocates and athletes said.

Melissa Stokes, 26, started playing sports with the Special Olympics when she was 8. She now is a volunteer Special Olympics ski coach in the Denver area and works as an assistant at the Special Olympics of Colorado office.

“We’re like a little family,” she said of her ski team.

She added: “Because we have special needs doesn’t mean we can’t do stuff. We can still accomplish a lot.”

More than half of Special Olympians in the U.S. are employed, according to the organization, compared with an estimated 10 percent of the intellectually disabled population at large.

Jeanne Wilson, the mother of the gymnast with Down syndrome , started tearing up when she recounted the moment she saw her daughter — whose future once looked so uncertain — standing atop an awards podium with a gold medal draped around her neck.

“It was just amazing because that really gave her confidence. And I don’t think people realize how much it means to a young person who you might have thought did not have a future or might not ever have a chance to walk,” she said. “To see her doing a routine on balance beam or a floor routine is pretty amazing.”

Katy Wilson, who lives in Gainesville, Georgia, continues to train as a gymnast. She also goes bowling with a group of Special Olympians most Fridays. They call themselves the Alley Kats, and Wilson describes the bowlers as some of her best friends.

“I love bowling because it is so much fun being out there being able to have friends,” she said. “It’s exciting to do bowling because I get a lot of scores.”

When she’s not in training, Wilson works at a steakhouse as a hostess.

“I get their coffee, I get their bread, I get their drinks, I do the silverware, I sweep up, I do the hostess,” she said. “Oh, I love the job because everybody’s so nice to me, especially the managers, they give me hope and they’re so excited to have me there and I’m so happy to be there with them.”

As a global ambassador for the Special Olympics, Wilson tours the country telling people about her life story. She says she hopes it reminds them that everyone can succeed with a positive attitude.

She modeled her life in her sister’s image, but she forged a life that’s all her own

For a selection of outdoor games go to: http://www.cysbackyardsports.com

When you have seen people playing with multicolored balls attacking a smaller ball have you wondered what the game is and how it is played read on….

Open Bocce

Open Bocce is the most popular form of bocce by casual players.  The great thing about open bocce is that it can be played almost anywhere there is open space.  This includes grassy surfaces such as a front lawn or back yard, dirt surfaces, sandy surfaces such as the beach, and even paved surfaces like parking lots.  The places that you can play bocce are only limited to your imagination.  Try playing bocce on a surface with hills or slopes to add a new element of strategy to your game.

Bocce is played with eight large balls and one smaller ball (called the pallino).  The game can be played with 2, 4, or 8 players.  Divide the bocce balls evenly between the number of players.  You will notice that your bocce ball set has balls with several different colors or designs.  Ideally, each bocce player will use balls from the set that are unique in design or color from all the other balls in play. This is helpful in distinguishing your bocce balls from those of another player.

At random, choose a player to throw the pallino.  After the pallino is thrown, the same player will throw his first bocce ball.  The purpose of the game is to get your bocce balls as close as possible to the pallino.  After the first player has thrown his first bocce ball, he is considered “inside” because his ball is closer to the pallino than any of the competitors balls.  All other players are considered “outside.”  Whenever a player is considered “inside,” he will forfeit his turn throwing bocce balls.  All “outside” players will take turns throwing their bocce balls until they until one of theirs gets closer to the pallino than the “inside” player.

After all players have thrown their bocce balls, the player that is “inside” will be awarded points.  One point will be awarded to this player for every ball that is closer to the pallino than his closest competitor’s ball.  After the points are awarded, the frame is completed.  Start a new frame by electing a new person to throw the pallino and to throw the first bocce ball.  A game is won when a player reaches 13 points.  Play as many frames as necessary until a player reaches this point level. Of course, this point level can be be decreased or increased depending on time constraints between players.

To purchase the game go to

http://tinyurl.com/kj3uds

If you like the game of horseshoes you will enjoy this article by columnist Bruce McClaren of the San Angelo Standard Times.

BRUCE MCLAREN: The fine art of pitching horseshoes

Around this part of the country the game of horseshoes often refers to pitching washers. Some folks refer to it as Texas, Polish or redneck horseshoes.

There are other contests where the object “pitched” is referred to as a dried “cow-pie.” In the words of the famous colonel from “MASH,” Sherman T. Potter, all of these were probably lumped into his category called “horse-hockey.”

I’m not exactly sure what he actually meant, but so as not to sound disparaging towards either washer horseshoes or cow-pie pitching, I’ll leave these two events to ebb and flow within themselves and stick to a game played between two people or two teams of two people using four metal objects called horseshoes and two metal stakes.

The horseshoes are not really shoes used on horses, but ones designed for tossing at one of the two stakes in the ground. Points are scored on the basis of the position of the thrown shoe to one of the two stakes. Now these stakes are placed 40 feet apart, thus making the throwing of the horseshoe a challenging experience for even the most able of players; but more on that later.

Not unlike other sporting competitions, this game is governed by rules established by the National Horseshoe Pitching Association of America. This organization regulates such things as the height of the stake above the ground, the shape of the horseshoe, various point-scoring rules and events held to determine national championships.

In case you are wondering, this game has not made it up to Olympic level as yet, however its history goes as far back as the American Revolutionary War. To find out more about the game, how to lay out a court and other finer details of how it is played, go to http://www.horseshoepitching.com. You will get a wealth of information that I cannot hope to include in this column.

Why then, you ask, have I chosen to spend my 750 words on something you could just as easily learn about off of the Internet? To be frank, my interest is not so much in the game as it is in the people who enjoy it as a non contact, family-oriented game.

Let’s look at this Fourth of July we just celebrated as a place to start, and harken back to that holiday a few years ago when folks gathered to celebrate Independence Day, not in contests to see who could remain standing after consuming large quantities of frothy beverages or playing a major league-wannabe softball game with its injuries, sprains and the aroma of eau-de liniment.

Rather, many families gathered around for the importance of the holiday and a chance for fellowship, friendship, food, homemade ice cream and a “friendly” game of horseshoes.

Once the outdoor experience of roasted corn, lemonade and all those other goodies was finished, for a while, a game of horseshoes brought folks together for a little friendly competition. Tame by today’s super-competitive, all-or-nothing activities, folks used this as a time to relax and work off some of the homemade meal without physically throwing too much out of whack.

Pitching a horseshoe that 40 feet to hopefully hear it make that resonating “clang” against the metal stake might be considered heated competition as the game wore on, but played without many disagreements, harsh words or modern-day brawls.

While other outdoor games such as croquet were almost as popular, horseshoes brought a spirit of competition that almost always ended with handshakes by winners and losers. Another unique aspect was that it permitted members of the family to play together, not pitted against each other, providing a unique bond unlike present-day competitive relationships. These moments provided them the opportunity to share a unique connection of sportsmanship and camaraderie.

Look back at those times, not really so long ago, when families got together in parks and backyards with friends and neighbors. Contests, games and special kinds of fun were tied to those get-togethers, often seen lacking in our present-day needs of speed, daring-do or one-upsmanship. Horseshoes may not have been the glue that held those times together, but they did instill a certain truism in the saying that “a family that plays together, stays together.”

Ready to try returning to more wholesome family gatherings? Lose your competitive edge and buy a set of horseshoes. Give it a try and have some fun.

San Angeloan Bruce McLaren is a member of the Standard-Times editorial board.

If you would like to purchase a set of horseshoes go to:

http://tinyurl.com/l344qn