Trey Burchfield claims Pro Doubles, Pro Singles title at American Cornhole League championships

By Carol McIntire

Editor

Trey Burchfield did something no one else has ever done the weekend of Aug. 10-11. He won two American Cornhole League World Championship titles.

That itself is a life changing event, but when you consider who his partner was in the Pro Doubles competition, it becomes even more spectacular. 

Trey, a Carrollton resident and a 2021 graduate of Carrollton High School, was teamed up with another Carrollton High School graduate, Adam Hissner, who now lives in New Philadelphia. 

Following the Pro Doubles championship at Rock Hill, SC, Aug.11, Trey wrote on his Facebook page, “It couldn’t have worked out any more perfectly for us, thanks to Titan Bags. We graduated from the same school in different decades in a very small town in Ohio, to becoming World Doubles Champions!”

The magnitude of the accomplishment becomes evident when you consider the vast number of people involved in the sport of cornhole and the chance two people from the same small town, who graduated from the same high school would be throwing bags in a world championship competition together and then win it!

Burchfield said he met Hissner, 46, about 12 years ago, but that was it, as Hissner threw in a different league.

Well, that was it until Trey’s sponsor, Titan Bags, worked out a deal to put the two professionals together on the same  doubles team this year.

Trey pointed out another uniqueness to the entire situation during an interview with The Messenger following the win. 

“Get this,” he said. “Titan Bags is from Carrollton, GA, and it’s located in Carroll County!”

Heading into the World Championship, Burchfield and Hissner were ranked 20th in the Pro Doubles competition. 

Trey explained the championship is a double elimination tournament of 128 teams divided into four brackets of 32 teams. 

“If you win your bracket, the four championship matches are aired live on ESPN on Sunday of the tournament” Burchfield explained. “We lost one match and then had to come back and work our way back through to win the bracket. 

“I say anybody can be beat on any given day. But the mentality I had all weekend was that nobody can beat the way I had been throwing all week,” he said. “I knew the way I was playing in the brackets, I was probably the hottest player in the tournament. I knew if I kept playing like that I could win.”

Burchfield was correct in the assessment of his level of play. 

After winning the World Championship doubles title, he went on to become the Pro Singles World Champion.

“After I won the singles, it didn’t seem real,” he said. “For some reason God wanted me to win! I did something no one else had done. I really did nothing different. Just put myself in the right position every round and stayed positive.”

Burchfield lost the first match in the singles competition 21-2 and came back to defeat that player twice to win the singles bracket to advance to Sunday’s television championship round. 

Burchfield is no stranger to American Cornhole League championships.

While still a student at Carrollton High School in 2020, he won the doubles title and, in 2021, he won the singles title. 

He competes in tournaments across the county almost every weekend, this year as close as Canton and even hosted an event in his Carrollton garage in July.

He is headed for California in a couple weeks to compete in an outdoor tournament with over 1,000 teams. 

“Playing outdoors will be different,” he noted.

Following up that tournament will be a plane ride to Germany where he will represent the United States in doubles and singles competition at the American Cornhole European Open, the largest tournament of the year in Germany. 

“Four of us from the United States will be there,” Burchfield said. 

A modest youngster from Carrollton, Burchfield gives credit for his love of the game to his dad and grandpa who took him along with them to local cornhole tournaments as a child.

“My goal today is to continue to make a living playing cornhole and not have to work a job,” he said. 

“I want to thank Titan Bags, my parents, Misty and Shaun, my girlfriend, everyone who follows me and Jimmy’s Backyard Barbecue for the support,” Burchfield added.