The recreational activities for adults in Kenosha have always been plentiful. Softball has always been king in KTown for both men and women. Horseshoes were always a staple of the competitive landscape, and bocce ball celebrates our Italian community and draws in a good chunk of participants. And while sand volleyball has pretty much taken over the top spot, there is a relative newcomer to the recreation space that has grown exponentially in the past few years. Bags!
Some call it Baggo, some call it Cornhole, hell they are even running the national championships on ESPN. Whatever you call it, Bags are here to stay. The best thing about Bags is it can be played almost anywhere and it is a recreation that there is essentially zero difference if it is played by a male or a female. Bags know no gender, race, body type, political affiliation or 40-yard dash times. Pick up a bag and start tossing.
One of the premier leagues in Kenosha takes place on Monday nights at Sheridan Lanes..out in the parking lot. “We started with 6 teams three years ago, last year we had twelve and this year we have 18” said league organizer Jason Griffin, “people love it, it’s a night out and some folks are very competitive and other are just out having fun”. Each team plays seven games per night and teams can consist of any variation of men and women. Griffin added there will be a playoff after the regular season ends, “after next week we will do a bracket and split it up into an A division and a B division to keep it fair. And if they come back next year, we’ll know kind of where to place them”.
Griffin also takes the entire league to a Kingfish game every year. “We always try and represent the Kingfish whenever we can, they park here during the year so we always take our group over for a game. Everybody loves that for sure”. And there have been a few teams in the league all three years. The manager from the team sponsored by Bill’s Corner Club, Linda Hegewald, said her team is proud to be an original member of the Sheridan Lanes Bags League. “Jason runs a great league and he has always been so easy to get along with. It is amazing to see how big this league has become and how fast it got there”.
So with softball on life-support, and bocce and horseshoes needing a specific playing area, it would seem that Bags has nowhere to go but up. You don’t need a specific amount of either gender to put together a team. You don’t need a ton of athletic ability to toss a beanbag 25 feet. You can literally drink while competing and you can still be home and asleep on the couch by 8:00 if you chose to do so. The Bags Renaissance is happening. You see it at parties. You see it at ballgames. You see it at work functions, and if you roll on down to the Sheridan Lanes parking lot on a Monday night in the summer, you’ll see the best Bags league in town.