COLUMBIA, Ill. — One of the world's best cornhole players is the 14-year-old freshman at Waterloo High School Ryan Traiteur. He is not just the best in his age bracket but is an ace in the hole for all ages.
“It’s (cornhole) taken me pretty far because I made pro last year and I was ranked No. 9 in the world. I was No. 2 until the world championship where I did really bad and got bumped down to 9," Traiteur said.
His love for cornhole began three years ago after teaming up with his mom at a fundraiser event. Now he takes his craft seriously.
“I quit soccer the next year because I got really good at cornhole. I wanted to drop a sport," Traiteur said.
Traiteur has tons of sponsorships, travels all over the country to throw and has been featured numerous times on TV. Even though not all of his classmates knew just how famous he was.
“Some of them don’t believe it at all," Traiteur laughed.
And this level of cornhole isn’t like us regular folks throwing it around at the backyard barbecue. The strategy is serious.
“I lay a block usually on my first bag and it makes my opponent miss their slide, so then if they miss I just roll over it or clean up the pile," Traiteur said.
The money is real.
“It’s considered a job for me. I’m basically making free money at my age because I don’t have to pay any bills or anything," Traiteur said. “I won both singles tournaments at pro shootout and pro-national I won ten thousand.”
And the stage is only getting brighter.
“It’s getting bigger and bigger each year. There’s probably hundreds of thousands of people playing. But not many people are good at it," Traiteur said. “I would never think I’d be here right now. I probably would’ve thought cornhole was really weird five years ago.”