(lively music) The gym is filled with people, lots of them.

The sight of arms swinging and the sounds of corn filled sacks smacking into the boards.

- I couldn't be more stoked.

- [Jason] It's cornhole, but not your fun football tailgate or backyard barbecue party variety.

This is for real.

- This is Worlds.

This is by far the biggest tournament of the year.

Every cornhole player looks forward to Worlds and playing in it.

If you're gonna win anything this year, Worlds is the one you want.

- [Jason] The American Cornhole League World Championships take place annually at the Rock Hill Sports & Events Center, a one-time textile mill converted into the epicenter of cornhole.

- The city of Rock Hill has done an amazing job in bringing in sports to become what they're known as competition lives here in Rock Hill.

- [Jason] Thousands of players of all ages come here each year for Worlds, and these guys and gals are just flat out good.

So good, the competition is televised on ESPN.

- [Announcer] He knows, it goes up top and hits it!

What a shot, Mike Clever!

- What the ACL has done is taking it to another level and grew the sport to what it is.

It's just crazy that where we're at now, - The level of focus, the level of like skill, strategy, all that it takes to get to this level, is beyond what a lot of people think.

- [Jason] Among this year's competitors were the country's first two collegiate scholarship cornhole players.

Yeah, you heard right, scholarship cornhole players, Winthrop University's, Jaxson Remmick and Gavin Hamann.

- Before I signed, I did not even think this was a possibility.

- It's nothing I could've ever even guessed was gonna happen.

- But it is groundbreaking, it is going to be history, first ever D1 school to offer scholarships for cornhole.

- We're pioneers, and we're grateful to be pioneers.

- [Jason] The guys are from the same small town in Colorado and each grew up around the game.

- When I first tossed was probably two years old (laughs).

We went camping with my parents a lot, and I was two years old crawling on the boards, doing whatever a baby would do with all the bags.

- I first threw a set of bags when I was about 8 or 10 at just like a cool family reunion at a park.

I have a huge family, and they always love playing backyard games, whether that's bocce ball or cornhole.

- [Jason] Gavin and Jaxson's High School didn't have a cornhole team.

- Not a lot of the high schools do.

- [Jason] So they started one.

- The high school didn't really even know about it.

We just had to represent our high school for the national.

So we put their logo on our jersey.

We talked to the principal, and he's like, "Yeah, that's okay.

Well, you know, we'll fund the jerseys for you."

- Like we were having fun with it.

It was something we enjoyed, and we saw as we were getting better, there was more money opportunity, and I would say what kind of flipped that switch was three years ago when we won the high school national championship.

Right from there we got some sponsors, and then it just kept escalating from there and on.

- [Jason] Their high school success led newly appointed Winthrop University coach Dusty Thompson to recruit them, selling Jaxson and Gavin on a vision.

- At the time we were just kind of thinking, we don't want to go to college to play cornhole.

- He flew us out to Winthrop, gave us a tour, kind of told us how he would build the program around us.

- After Dusty gave us this, big D1 school, he flew us out here.

Him and his family are awesome people, and he kind of made our choice for us.

- I'm looking at building more of a family than I am a team, and I've let him know that up front that the main goal for me is their education, not cornhole.

Cornhole is gonna come.

- Dusty is one of those coaches that has passion, really loves the game, enjoys what he does, and he bleeds cornhole.

- [Jason] When signing day at their high school arrived, it was Gavin and Jaxson getting all the local media attention and not the kids signing to play the more traditional sports.

- There's two news channels there to cover it all, and they're only there for the cornhole.

They're not there for anything else, so it's really cool.

At first it was kind of like, what the heck's going on?

But then we end up on every national news channel you can think of.

- Two Colorado high school seniors have a passion for the game of cornhole.

- [Jason] From Good Morning America to CBS Saturday Morning.

- With the head-scratching news of college scholarships to play cornhole being bestowed on a pair of Colorado teens.

- [Jason] News of the cornhole college scholarships at Winthrop went national.

- The publicity we've already gotten from it is crazy.

All the news stations we've been on, national television, it's just a huge, huge thing that I could've never guessed.

- [Jason] And in turn gave the university a lot of exposure.

- It's great for Winthrop University, the national publicity that we've gotten, the calls that you get from somebody you hadn't heard from in 20 years and say, "Hey, Winthrop's got a cornhole team.

You know, what's that about?"

- Gavin and Jaxson have really opened up the flood doors with kids wanting to come to Winthrop.

- [Jason] Tying things all together, the Rock Hill Sports & Event Center, which serves the dual purpose as home of the American Cornhole League offices, as well as Winthrop's team.

- This facility right here, this will be where we practice, this will be where we hold our meets with other colleges.

So it just, everything goes hand in hand with, we're lucky to have this in our back pocket.

- Oh, it's sweet, and knowing that this is like our, gonna be like our new home, like base, oh, it's awesome.

- It's just a cool, such a cool place, honestly.