Kasson native becomes professional cornhole player

When Kasson’s Lexi Hugeback started playing cornhole, it was just for fun.

The Kasson native’s cornhole days began when her family was camping in Austin. “They had some boards out there, so we could throw,” she recalls. “We played those once in a while.”

From there, Hugeback kept playing and got more serious about the game. This fall, she turned pro, and is now one of 256 professional cornhole players in the U.S. and one of only 32 women.

“This game isn’t just a drinking, tailgating game,” she said.
“It’s bigger than you think. And anyone can play, and anyone can win.”

Hugeback, 21, graduated from Kasson-Mantorville High School in 2019. She went on to attend Rochester College and Technical College and is still a student there.

She plays basketball for the RCTC Yellowjackets, and lives between her parents’ home in Kasson and a house with her basketball teammates in Rochester.

Her parents are Mike and Shelly, and she has two brothers, Aidan, 19, and Austin, 17.

Hugeback remembers well the day she become a pro: Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022.

“I had a lot of emotion,” she recalls. “I actually cried because I worked so hard for it and I don’t know, it was just a really big accomplishment.”

She now travels the country for cornhole competitions, and last summer was gone for five-six weeks at a time, including going to the World’s for a week in South Carolina in August.

She plays as part of the Mid North Conference, which is comprised of players from Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. On September 18, she went 8-0, during a single elimination tourney.

“I love the game,” she said. “It’s another way for me to be competitive, and why not strive to be the best?”

Hugeback describes her style of cornhole playing as “dirty,” which is an insider’s term for when a player blocks the hole to make their opponent’s shots harder.

“It’s called a dirty style game,” she said. “So, I muddy up the boards.”

Come April, Hugeback will play in the season’s first national tournament, which will be aired on ESPN. Her next tournament, however, is her conference match-up on March 3-4 in Rochester.

Hugeback said cornhole has also allowed her to meet new people, and form friendships.

Within the cornhole society, she’s a pretty big deal. She has been asked for her autograph and also posts videos almost daily on TikTok, one of which garnered 462,000 views.

She practices as much as five hours a day when she’s not in basketball season for RCTC.

“Obviously I want to get better every day, every tournament I go to,” she said, “but for now I want to strive to be the top female in the ACL, which is the American Cornhole League.”

Photo: Submitted Photo Lexi Hugeback, a graduate of Kasson-Mantorville High School is one of only 256 professional cornhole players in the United States and one of only 32 women playing cornhole professionally.