Big Valley Jamboree (BVJ) is one of country music's biggest festivals, and this year Strathmore had a big role to play in it. However, it wasn't on the stage, as Strathmore local Lance Smith brought Strathmore's cornhole league to BVJ to host a tournament.
Smith is the president of the Strathmore cornhole club and says cornhole is one of Canada's fastest-growing sports, alongside pickleball. This was the first time BVJ hosted a cornhole tournament, and Smith was excited for the opportunity to get more people involved in the fun.
"Everybody had a smile on their face, everybody thoroughly enjoyed it. It helped a lot with the exposure of the game," he said.
The tournament was quite a big deal, as it was sponsored by Coors and had big prizes to give away. The first place prize was worth $1000, as it was passes and camping to next year's BVJ, while second place received air pods for each player, which was a $600 prize. With such strong backing from Coors and a large turnout at BVJ, Smith is optimistic next year will be much bigger.
"If they (Coors/ BVJ) advertise that there's free passes to the next year we'll triple our numbers from this year for sure if more people are aware of it."
As for Strathmore, Smith is bringing the cornhole league back after a successful debut last year.
"We're going to hopefully have a league this fall and then another league just after the new year, and that one will be back probably at the AG grounds and the pavilion building because that was our big one. Last year, we averaged over 50 people a week for our first ten weeks from January to March."
Beyond the league returning, Smith is looking for other ways to continue growing cornhole in Strathmore, which includes potential events like staff Christmas parties where you could bring a caterer in for the party while cornhole is also available for anyone to enjoy.
You can find more information on the Strathmore Huskers on its Facebook page here.
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Fri, May 3, 10:00 AM
