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His title to hole-d: Southampton native wins college cornhole national title

Posted at 11:28 PM, Jan 07, 2019
and last updated 2019-01-07 23:29:09-05

Matthew Stout, cornhole national champion

SOUTHAMPTON COUNTY, Va. - He's the 'colonel' of cornhole, and his phone is still popping.

"I had a lot of respect and people pulling from me from Southampton," Matthew Stout admitte. "I haven’t even had a chance to text some people back yet."

Last weekend, Stout, a Southampton County native representing Paul D. Camp Community College in Franklin, won the national college cornhole championship.

Matt turns 21 years-old this week. He turned pro in cornhole as a freshman at Southampton High School. However, his obsession with the sport began in fifth grade.

cornhole

"I'd get off the school bus, set the boards up at the house and throw 500, 1000 bags a day," Stout recalled. "As long as it wasn’t raining, I was going to throw something."

No rain Monday afternoon on the roof of our WTKR-TV studios - just Matt's reign as singles cornhole national champ.

“What’s your response to somebody questioning your ability and thinking it's "easy" to be a successful cornhole player?"

"Most of the time in a situation like that, I will probably just tell them we can just play and let our actions speak louder than our words," Stout said smiling as he sank a beanbag into the hole.

Matthew Stout and Wink play cornhole

Stout says the key to being a boss at bags is ... brains.

"It’s like a chess game," he explained. "Once you throw your first bag, I already know what I’m going to do with my fourth bag. It’s way more mental than people think."

So don't play Matthew Stout in cornhole - or in chess.