Bags were flying in the air all day last Saturday at the AMVETS Post 21 in Sebring as 53 teams competed in the 7th annual Champion For Children of Highlands County Cornhole Tournament.
It took almost five hours in this double elimination tournament to narrow the playing field down to the final two teams to compete for the championship. Alfred Dunbar and Grady Kerney, both of Sebring, formed the team BMO which eventually ended up going against the older team of Gene George, of Michigan, and Steve Olbert, of Frostproof, who formed the team SOG. Dunbar and Kerney got knocked out of one round and ended up in the consolation bracket earlier in the day. They worked their way back to the top and defeated the Corn Pickers consisting of Travis Chapin of Michigan and Mike Chapin of Avon Park in the final round in the consolation bracket.
As Dunbar and Kerney moved over to faceoff against George and Olbert, they plotted their strategy to go against the undefeated team. They had to win the first game in order to play a second game – and they did just that. Going into the final game of the tournament, the men went bag for bag trying to outscore each other.
In the end, George and Olbert took the win with a score of 21-17. Dunbar and Kerney won second and the Chapin pair came in third. Prize money was handed out to each team with first getting $100, second received $80 and third won $50.
More importantly, the overall winner was the Champion For Children Foundation who walked away with $30,000 raised at the event. “The Amvets set a goal of $25,000 for this year and as of noon we already collected $22,000,” said Karen Cartier with the AMVETS who was in charge of counting the money.
AMVETS member Debbie Dettman said her organization was able to reach their goal due to the numerous amount of generous donors. “Every cornhole board was sponsored by a donor,” she added. She also mentioned there were door prizes and a 50/50 raffle. Food and drink sales were also another source of income with Bernie Little Distributing and Coca Cola Co. donating products.
Dettman also pointed out that Robert Hendrix with Hendrix Lawn Service and Ross Vickers with Coffee News of FLA came out to roast ears of corn. “The guy roasting the corn (Hendrix) even volunteered to play cornhole with another man who didn’t have a partner.” All proceeds from the corn sales were donated to Champion For Children. The Aktion Club of Highlands County volunteered to serve the corn to customers all for a donation.
