TCL League Championship Denton, TX

This time of year means the Texas summer is upon us. It's hot y'all,,,really hot. You can get in a car that has been parked outside in the direct sun and find yourself gasping as if you just stuck your head in a hotter than heck oven! You may also feel the effects of some super hot leather seats, if you're one of those folks who has em! The good ol' Texas sun can zap your energy, dull your intelligence, send you to an early grave and really make you sweat...my wife says she doesn't sweat...she glistens! 

This past weekend in Denton, TX, Texas Cornhole League concluded their 11th season with the TCL League Championship and let me tell ya, there were some white hot bags being tossed as this may have been the most exciting State Tournament TCL has ever had. Starting Thursday night with Women's Doubles and ending Saturday night with Open Doubles, this event was packed with amazing players and thrilling games. 

With each Signature event this season, TCL experienced large numbers including having more players than they've ever had at each event to a point where they put a cap on how many players would be able to play. The payouts...oh man, starting with Signature 1 in Bryan/College Station with $20k in payouts and ending the Signature Series Events with $25k in payouts in Irving. The League Championships paid out a robust $35,000 not to mention some side stuff with the always fun Calcutta. This was by far the most impressive season to date for the TCL crew. The TCL brass made adjustments with scoring systems that helped speed up the events. They transitioned the sign up and payment methods to allow more time to get the events started and completed in a reasonable time frame. Other than a glitch or two here and there, things always seemed to go as planned. With the absurd growth in the sport, the amount of effort that went into running these events is staggering. Chad Jacobson, Jason Andrews, J D Thompson were the main guys who coordinated these events but others were there lending a hand including John Henderson, Eddie Adams, Austin Pryor, Jon Rychlik and Ashton Burton. Also all the Regional Directors who spent many hours running events and leagues...I tip my hat to y'all on a job well done.

Oh yea, there was a big event wasn't there! As usual the main event was Open Doubles. I might add that in all the other finals from the other divisions, there were outstanding games and players making great shot after great shot. But Open Doubles...folks, these fellas put on a show! In a super intense and rambunctious setting where loud boisterous cheers seemed to intensify with each big shot, Grant Upchurch and Josh Murdock faced Ernest Herrera and Mason Vega in a epic showdown. This matchup had some interesting story lines including the Dem Boys Cornhole group versus the Cornhole Cartel. It also included 4 players vying for their first State Title. It had a young stud in Mason Vega paired up with one of the more seasoned players in Herrera. I believe both teams were throwing Yetis, much to the satisfaction of one Taylor Stone. Upchurch and Murdock were undefeated going into the finals and had faced Herrera and Vega earlier in the winners bracket semi finals, winning that match in two games. Ernest and Mason battled back beating Matt Longoria and Branden Gregor, Taylor Stone and Noah Albarado and Lonnie Madrid and Joel Infante Jr. to earn another shot at Upchurch and Murdock. Herrera and Vega, behind some tremendous shots by Vega including several crowd pleasing 2 for 1 push shots, were able to win the first 2 games forcing a deciding game 3. A subtle change for this game was the decision to change sides/ends by Upchurch and Murdock. Sometimes this move can help, sometimes it doesn't but this time it worked. Trailing only once in the 3rd game at 1-0, Grant and Josh had fairly comfortable leads only to see them vanquish. They led 7-1 but a 6 spot by Vega tied the game at 7 and then Upchurch worked the lead to 12-7. That lead didn't last long as the gap closed up at 12-11 just a few frames later. Again Upchurch and Murdock pulled ahead making the score 18-11 only to see that lead tighten up at 18-16. Murdock eventually took advantage of a rare bad round by Vega to secure the title winning the deciding game 21-16. This match was amazing to watch with all the momentum swings and thrilling shots by both teams. An absolute superb ending to TCL's 11th season. Other winners include Lonnie Madrid and Joel Infante, Jr. who brought some West Tx heat to finish 3rd while Taylor Stone and Noah Albarado had a strong 4th place finish. 

In the Advanced Tier 1 Doubles, Sammy Soto and Luke Anderson cruised past Austin McCuistion and Gage Seidel for the win while the Advanced Tier 2 winners were Rick Belloso and Jeremy Beeson who got by Michael Howard and Misa Gomez.

Competitive Doubles was won by the hot shooting West Texans Juan Silva and Freddy Rodriguez who went undefeated to win the title. Aaron Palmer and Chase Lester came in 2nd while Dan Hemingway and Andrew Rainey finished 3rd. 

Competitive Doubles Tier 1 was won by Cody Benson and Hanson Murrah who beat Karson Ridgeway and McKaeden Grant. In Tier 2 it was Jake Chavez and Anthony Alvarado, both from Snyder, Tx, beating Zane Bandfield and Jolten Andree to get the championship. All of these Competitive finalists threw extremely well and I look to see them on more podiums in the future! 

Michael Key and Brandon Maynard took home 1st place in Social Doubles defeating Tanner Nelson and Reagen Chastain. Finishing 3rd was James Borque and Alex Garcia.

Winning Social Doubles Tier 1 was Petey Olivas and Ayden Flores who beat Matt Liles and Jeremy Harrelson. Grady Vasquez and Robert Laureles, Jr. came in 3rd. Tier 2 winners were Cody Keesee and Alma Juan who defeated Shab Liles and Joey Arriga. 

The weekends events got going Thursday night with the Women's Doubles leading things off. Christina Espinosa and Veronica Vinson went undefeated beating Desirae Cruz and Trish Trejo in the finals. Denise McEvoy and Cassie Kraemer came in third and Stacy Paup and Chelsie Foster finished 4th.

Friday morning a full slate of events were on tap including Women's Singles, Senior Singles and Youth Singles. All of these Divisions were highly contested with some outstanding throwers in each Division. Isabella Surprenant was able to beat Christina Espinosa to win the Women's Singles crown while Tracie Beeson finished a impressive 3rd. Rounding out the top 5 included Sabra Howell in 4th place while Trish Trejo and Courtni Asebedo tied for 5th. 

Mason Vega won 6 straight games to win the Youth title beating a sharp shooting Noah Albarado. Noah lost his second game and went on to win 5 straight elimination games to get to the finals. Preston Peacock came in 3rd place, Luke Anderson finished 4th and tied for 5th were Aaron Leal and Adrian Jackson. Needless to say, the future looks very bright for these youngsters.

The geriatric Division, the Seniors, was won by Johnny Seymour. Seymour beat Jim Abdella in a exciting finals match which had Abdella winning the first game to force a deciding game. Seymour found his stroke and took advantage of a rare off round by Jim to get the win in the final game. Donnie Greer came in 3rd, Dario Lopez finished 4th and tying for 5th were Kenneth Wright and Dwight Strait. 

Open Singles was absolutely LOADED! Right at 100 players lined up and battled it out and when the dust settled, Grant Upchurch beat Brandon Gregor to get his first Singles State Title. Upchurch played like a man on a mission and he wasn't going to be denied. In the Sweet 16 round he beat Ernest Herrera, a red hot Jeremy Beeson, Ernest Monarca, and slid by a valiant Noah Albarado to get to the king seat. Brandon Gregor lost his very first match of the event and won 9 consecutive games including impressive wins over Joel Infante, Jeremy Beeson, Bobby Fink, Caleb Franklin, Monarca and then gained redemption in beating Albarado to get to the finals. BG flat out put on a show and did what BG does...dude is amazing! In a big time final, Gregor had a 16-8 lead but Upchurch changed his strategy and it seemed to work. Grant dirtied up the board some and hit some big airmails, executed a push shot here and there to get the score even at 16 all. The last round was text book for Upchurch as he threw a blocker, a airmail, a wrap around shot then converted a 2 for 1 push to win a hard earned title. A very exciting game to watch as both of these men threw several big shots. Young Albarado was on point all day and finished 3rd and Ernest Monarca came in 4th. Getting the tie for 5th were Caleb Franklin and Ernest Herrera. Every big event it seems the talent in this division gets deeper and deeper with so many outstanding players emerging. Good stuff folks!

Competitive Singles was full of up and coming players including Juan Silva who defeated Fletcher Johnson to nab the title. Nick Aven and Freddy Rodriguez finished 3rd and 4th respectively. There were several others who threw really well including Weston Evans who finished 5th, Cayle Watson and Cody Herd who tied for 7th. Joel Muniz, Cole Lynch, Samuel Palacios and Dylan Lopez tied for 7th. All of these fellas can flat out play!

Winning Tier 1 was Dylan Newland who defeated Clint Russell. In tier 2, Karson Ridgeway beat Derrick Paul for the win. 

Social Singles was won by Bubba Kirkpatrick from Central Texas who beat Aaron Palmer. Palmer lost his first round match in the sweet 16 round and won 6 straight games to get to the finals. Way to battle champ! Coming in 3rd was Jolten Andree and Joe Sharkey finished 4th.

Mike Smith won Social Tier 1 Singles by outshooting Derrick Paul and in Tier 2 Reagan Chastain was able to defeat Johnny Baker.  

The 11th TCL Season came to a end with some terrific performances on the boards and left many players eager to get back at it. I really feel that this season was one of the best and most competitive seasons TCL has ever had. Like most of you, I'm looking forward to next season but first, TCL will be hosting the Top 60 Event at Lake Possum Kingdom. There will be several first timers who I'm certain are excited for this always entertaining weekend. Congratulations to all the winners from the League Championship Tournament and we hope to see you all soon!

Keep em in play baby! 

Ryder Cup Memories

With the TCL Signature Series #2 behind us, many of us are gearing up for the new year and the next TCL event.  Right smack dab in the middle of our sights is one of the biggest and most suspenseful events you will ever experience, TCL's Ryder Cup. Known as "An event unlike any other", this unique event continues to grow and is the biggest event of the year. What started out as a "our neighborhood is better than yours" type of tourney with a handful of teams, now has become a multiple division event with over 60 teams made up of 10 players. Well, there were over 60 teams last year so who knows how many will be vying for the cup this year but I can assure you it will be memorable.

One of my most memorable Ryder Cups was the one held January 2016 in Mesquite. It was a doozy folks! In this one, there were teams from outside of Texas...I mean really outside of Texas. There were players from Ohio and North Carolina and these squads had some of the best players in the country at the time and they came down here and put on a show. I don't remember what this particular division was called but it had all the top players from Texas on several teams along with those out of state teams. The Open Division was the one I played in with the East Texas team led by Captain Brad Jones. The 5 other teams including Red River, Texas Justice, North Tarrant, Mule Barn and East Dallas. This Division produced one of the most exciting finishes to any Ryder Cup and here is how it went down...well, best to my recollection.

Everything seemed normal as Team Ten concluded with East Dallas and N. Tarrant tied with 4 points each. Followed closely with 3 points were East Texas and Mule Barn. Men's and Women's Singles were next with a March Madness style bracket and this is where things started to heat up. Heath Mills beat Kyle Verner for the win and with both players representing E. Texas, big points were garnered for Capt. Brad Jones and his team. The standings at that point had E. Texas in first with 14.5, E. Dallas in 2nd with 13.5 and N. Tarrant tied for 3rd with the Mule Barn with 10.5. Doubles followed and things were really about to get intense!

I remember it being very close and after me and my partner, Jim Abdella beat the team from E. Dallas, I looked at the scoreboard and at that time we held a small lead. I walked around and started putting numbers together and after looking at the situation, I felt like we had enough points to win the cup. I knew there were only a few games left to be played and the closest team to us, E. Dallas had just one match left. If they won that match they would still be a point or so short so I felt like we were on the verge of winning. All the games were completed and some of us were waiting around for the scores to be completed while some went to their hotel rooms thinking it was all over. Being that it was around 11 pm, some decided to hit the sauce and that may have been a bad thing. I glanced over towards the scorers table and noticed a few people gathered around in what appeared to be a serious discussion. As I peered closer, I realized one of those folks was my Captain, Brad Jones. He wasn't happy about something so I made my way that direction to see if I could find out what was happening. 

I really wasn't sure what all had taken place but as I got close enough I caught glance at the television monitor which showed the standings and to my surprise, the E. Texas team was tied with the team from E. Dallas. Obviously something unusual had occurred and there were several Captains along with the Tournament Directors discussing things. One of the things I heard from them was that there was a tie and a sudden death match was to be played. Eventually it was explained and the fun was just getting started! 

Brad Jones and his E. Texas team was deadlocked with E. Dallas led by Will Davis and both were about to be a part of TCL history! The unique way TCL decided to settle this situation was interesting and ultimately, very exciting. A coin toss decided which Captain would have the first choice to pair players up in a "down and back" round. The team that scored the most points in that down and back would earn a point for their team. The first team to get to 6 would win the Cup! The Captain that won the toss could pick any player from his team to play any player from the other team and after that down and back was completed, the other captain would have their turn to do the same. They would take turns until one team reached 6 points. Jones won the toss and with a huge boisterous crowd lining the outside edges of the court, his first pick was Heath Mills and I don't remember who jones selected to play against Mills but Mills won to give E. Texas a 1-0 lead. Davis went next and whoever he chose for his team won tying the score at 1-1. I believe Jones went with Kyle Verner who lost to give E. Dallas a 2-1 lead. Captain Will Davis went on to win 2 more matches to give them a seemingly insurmountable 4-1 lead. I can't remember who all played the next 2 matches but E. Texas won to draw them closer at 3 points to 4. Up next for E. Texas was Sean Gay who was a good player but I really don't believe any of the standing room only crowd, including Sean would have expected him to hit the shot that he hit. With one bag left and a board cluttered about with several bags all around the hole, Sean had only one option. He had to hit a airmail and drag one of the bags to give him the win. The place had been buzzing but as he let his bag fly it got eerily quite and as the bag seemed to fly in super slow motion...the crowd quickly erupted as he not only hit the airmail but drug 2 bags to give him and his E. Texas team the point! It was freakin' awesome y'all! This tied the score at 4 and there were only 2 players from each team left to battle. I remember Jones getting me and Justin Bennett together to ask us who we would want to play against from E. Dallas and I spoke first saying for him to match me up with Richard Reed. I had some success earlier against Richard in doubles and felt like I could have some success against him in this critical situation. So it was me and Richard Reed stepping to the line and after the first 8 bags had been thrown, Reed was ahead by 1. I don't really remember what the exact situation was completely but with my last bag, and a bag or two in front of the hole, I had to hit a airmail as a boarded bag wouldn't be enough. With little hesitation I threw a bag that had more prayers and hail mary's than you could imagine and bang...it some how went right through the hole to give us the win and a 5-4 lead and a whole lot of momentum! With a rather bleak outlook just a few minutes earlier, no one would've expected things to go the way they had gone. Down 4-1, with a unsuspecting player hitting a crucial airmail drag, a old guy playing way past his bedtime making a game deciding airmail, E. Texas had brought the room to a frenzy! The last matchup was Justin Bennett for E. Texas playing against Randy Husband from E. Dallas. They washed after each player had thrown their 4 bags but Bennett was about to put the nail in the coffin. He made his first bag, Husband's first bag went wide right, Bennett made his 2nd and his third while Husband only was able to make one. Bennett drained his last bag to give E. Texas the win and the cup in what would become one of the most exciting Ryder Cup finishes in TCL history. 

The exhilaration and excitement overshadowed our fatigue as we all began to realize what had just happened. My tank was empty but I had just enough energy left to give my teammates high fives and hugs as we celebrated into to early morning hours. It was a great feeling, the feeling we all play for and even though Will Davis' E. Dallas squad was disappointed, they too were a big part of this moment. It was a big time moment for all of us, one that we all will never forget. Words from a speech I've given come to mind..."Great moments are born from great opportunities". This was a great opportunity and in a few weeks, there will indeed be more great moments available.

This was a Ryder Cup memory that I was fortunate to be a part of and as we gear up for the next Ryder Cup, I hope you all are able to enjoy the moment and if the opportunity becomes yours, fate will be on your side and you're able to create memories and moments like these. 

Have fun and throw 'em straight y'all!