At 18, Erick Davis is one of the best cornhole players in the world

Story by Maddie Ellis

Video by Julian Berger

Photography by Emily Caroline Sartin

Graphics by Leighann Vinesett

With a lead of 11 points, in the middle of round six out of 10 in the CBS pro shootout doubles championship for the American Cornhole League, Erick Davis had one goal for himself — and it wasn’t just to win.

“I want to throw a perfect game on TV,” he thought at that moment.

That was on Sept. 18, at the American Cornhole League Pro Shootout Championship doubles game in Jacksonville, Florida. A day for revenge. Erick along with his teammate Bret Guy would play against two of the best players in the world: Bret’s father, Matt Guy, and Jamie Graham, the 2020 singles world champion.

It was the “ultimate rubber match,” the CBS announcers said.

Going into the September game, the pairs were tied at 1-1 against each other. Erick and Bret had an early win in the season, with Graham and Matt taking back the title at the next meeting. At the end of the season, they had one last chance to prove themselves.

Up to this point in the match, Erick and Bret had made every shot — they were 22 for 22. So Erick picks up his bags, then focuses on the music playing in his ear, likely rap music from Juice WRLD.

And he throws.

Where it all began

Erick is just one of thousands of players across the country cashing in on the prize and sponsorship money available to top performers in the up-and-coming professional sport of corn hole. Erick will likely make six figures next season, with decades of play ahead of him. And it all started at age 11 — earlier if you count the games in his grandfather’s backyard in Thomasville, North Carolina.

One weekend at a yard sale at a local church, Erick played at a benefit tournament and won. From there, Erick and his family found tournaments in the area and across the state, playing almost every night of the week.

At 12, Erick went to his first big tournament in Charleston, West Virginia, hosted by the American Cornhole Organization. Eric Hinerman, the director of certified officials for the ACO, remembers one game between Erick and Matt Guy, who was a world champion at the time. A huge crowd gathered to witness the match of the champion versus the pre-teen who no one had ever seen before.

Erick lost, scoring only two points. But overall, he placed ninth out of more than 300 people. For his family, that moment was a wake-up call.

“We went up there and I did better than 300 of the people that were older than me and had been playing longer than me,” Erick said. “So we kind of jumped into it.”

Growing up in the sport

Erick first started playing professionally with the American Cornhole Organization, founded in 2005 by Frank Geers, making it the first professional organization for the sport.

Geers can’t remember exactly when it was when Erick went from a player to the player.

“I think he was just one of those people that’s just naturally gifted with the ability to pitch a beanbag,” he said.

He remembers Erick at 12 approaching the boards, beating adults in a landslide, then going right back to join other kids and kick a ball around.

In 2017, at 14 years old, Erick won 1st place in the junior division championship, the world singles championship and the world doubles championship — and he was named player of the season.

But Erick was memorable not just for his winning streak. Geers said Erick was also known as a bit of a sore loser in the early days.

“If chairs could press charges for assault,” said Erick’s brother, Branden, an American Cornhole League pro.

That’s part of why Erick played with Robbie in his early years in the sport. Robbie could keep him calm.

“If he was worried about having a ride home, and he was playing with me, he couldn’t get too mad,” Robbie said.

But his playing ability kept growing, and he soon topped the rankings of the ACO. And with his skill level, so too did his maturity — or at least, his ability to contain his passion.

Joining the American Cornhole League

Even though Erick was a pro, he still thought of it as just a hobby, a way to spend his evenings and weekends.

That was until last year, when Jason McCannon, the founder of equipment manufacturer Fire Cornhole, offered Erick a sponsorship and the chance to join his “superteam” in the American Cornhole League.

McCannon, who also lives in Thomasville, wanted to bring the best of the best onto his team, even if that meant splitting up the established father-son duo of Matt and Bret Guy. Matt was paired with Graham, leaving McCannon to find a partner for Bret. He instantly thought of Erick.

So in 2020, Erick made the switch from the ACO to the ACL.

The American Cornhole League was founded in 2015 by Stacey Moore and today, has broadcast deals with ESPN, contributing to the growing popularity of the sport.

Because cornhole doesn’t require physical contact, it proved the perfect COVID-19 safe sport to air during the pandemic. Trey Ryder, the chief marketing officer for the ACL, said that last year, cornhole was broadcast on ESPN for seven weeks straight.

Because he was now playing on TV, Erick has even started to get recognized in public.

One man approached him at a tournament in August located in Ventura, California.

“He came up to me, and he’s like ‘I’m Shemar, it’s nice to meet you.’”

“I’m Erick, it’s nice to meet you, too,” he responded.

“I know who you are, I’m a fan,” said Shemar — as in Shemar Moore, one of the lead actors in “Criminal Minds.”

Erick recognized him immediately.

“It was kind of this realization like this is actually big,” Erick said. “It’s not just money, people actually know who I am now.”

The ACL, headquartered in Rock Hill, South Carolina, has become like the “NBA of cornhole,” Erick said. The ACL generates revenue through entry fees, the sale of equipment, media deals with networks like ESPN and CBS and sponsorships with Johnsonville, Bush’s Best and most recently, Bacardi.

Erick’s priority in the league is to be able to support himself. With combined payouts and his contract with Fire Cornhole, Erick expects to make more than $150,000 total in the 2021-22 season.

“I have, you know, 40, 50 years left,” he said. “And it’ll be something that I can brag about when I’m older — tell my kids hopefully.”

But even more than the money, Erick wants to be the best.

“I want people to talk about me the way they talk about Michael Jordan,” he said.

‘A human highlight reel’

Ninety percent of players go for the hole with every throw, Erick said. But what makes his game unique is that he tries to block the hole with his shots.

“I try and make them miss more than I do,” he said. “There’s not many people that do it, and I’m probably the only one that successfully does it.”

When he is able to successfully block the hole, his opponent has to use an alternative shot, like a push shot that forcibly moves through the bags on the board or, if they have the skill, the roll shot — a throw Erick is credited with inventing.

In order to employ the roll, also known as the flop shot, Erick tilts the bag up in his hand and then throws. That’s about all he can offer in terms of explanation when people ask him how he does it — and many, many people ask him.

When successful, the bag will land in front of the opponent’s bag on the sticky side, catch the underside of the opponent’s, flip overtop of it and slide into the hole.

Coming up with trick shots is one of his favorite parts of the game, even the ones he can’t fully explain. One of the flashier Erick originals is what he calls the “bar of soap.” If his bag is trapped below his opponent’s bag, he throws the next shot so the bag wedges underneath the stack, slipping his own bags out from his opponent’s and towards the hole.

This kind of spontaneity is exactly why Ryder believes Erick might be one of the best players in the world.

“He’s a human highlight reel,” he said.

Ryder compares it to professional football — Erick isn’t a Tom Brady, one who will throw the same successful shot over and over. No, Erick is more like a Patrick Mahomes. A flashy player, often taking risks and able to nail a variety of throws.

“Really how you beat Erick Davis is you have to bore them to death,” Ryder said. “You have to put them in a situation where he can’t do all of those fancy different shots, where he can’t be flashy, you have to really simplify the game.”

So much of this natural skill is just that — natural. During the season, Erick doesn’t practice, exactly. He doesn’t have a large enough flat space in his yard to set up the regulation 27 feet between cornhole boards. Sometimes he sets up the boards in the upstairs hallway of his house and throws to make sure his arm isn’t out of practice.

The tournaments themselves serve as his main form of practice. While the ACL season is year round, Erick primarily plays from November to mid-September. Sept. 25 marked the first weekend that Erick stayed in the state of North Carolina in four months.

In the offseason, Erick tries to find smaller, local tournaments in the state — ’’you know, not across the country,” he said — but he also just enjoys the free time. The simple act of playing video games on a Saturday morning is something he savors. He also started playing golf and disc golf.

“If you can do it outside or in a big place, I like to do it,” he said.

And just like with cornhole, he takes each game very seriously.

“I’m very competitive about everything,” he said.

‘Competitive about everything’

I have, you know, 40, 50 years left,” Davis says. “And it’ ll be something that I can brag about when I’m older—tell my kids hopefully.” (Photo by Emily Caroline Sartin)

Midway through the championship game, Erick watched the bag fly through the air and toward the board. It was meant to fall into the hole and pull his adjacent bag along with it. But it didn’t work, and his perfect game was no more.

At 18, Erick doesn’t get visibly angry during the game anymore. When people try to trash talk him, he just turns his music up louder, tuning it out and focusing on the board.

Although he didn’t throw a perfect game that game, Erick and Bret still won in a landslide, 12-2. But even in the excitement of victory, he looks almost expressionless. Other players may shout, kneel and hit the ground out of excitement for a $50,000 prize. But not Erick. No, Erick turned to Graham, gave him a fist bump and walked onto the court to pose with the giant check.

But while doesn’t show his passion outwardly like he did growing up, it’s still there, simmering below the surface.

“I feel like that’s why he ended up being so good,” McCannon said. “He cared so much, if he lost or he missed a shot — he lived and died with every loss, every shot.”

Erick finished the 2021 season 10th in the league in singles and third in doubles, alongside Bret.

“If you ask him how he finished the season … he’d probably tell you that it was a disappointment,” Ryder said. “He’s got aspirations to be the number one ranked player in the world.”

Even recounting the very first ACL tournament he ever played in, a match he lost, what he remembers most is how he felt.

“I’m still so mad,” he said.