Noah Hughes ‘24 has never shied away from competition.
Growing up in Fishersville, Va., the former Wilson Memorial High School tennis standout attended cookouts and baseball tournaments with his family. At each event, he watched his father breeze past opponents in a friendly game of cornhole (a game in which bean bags are tossed toward a slanted wooden board with a hole in the middle). With competitiveness in his blood, his passion for the sport quickly grew.
Once Hughes arrived on the campus of Virginia Wesleyan University in fall 2019, he started watching cornhole competitions on ESPN, set up boards in his family’s backyard on which to practice and eventually played in a local tournament. Although he lost, it only fueled his competitive spirit.
“What made me fall in love with the sport is the fact that we got beaten so badly,” Hughes says. “I didn’t want to be remembered for that. I wanted to make a name for myself.”
At VWU, there was plenty on Hughes’ plate as he balanced playing on the men’s tennis and golf teams with taking classes, but he still managed to find time to practice cornhole. When he showed up at the Eagles Nest Bar in Virginia Beach, Va., for his first cornhole tournament there, he was blown away by the number of professional players competing. Although he lost two of his three matches, he earned respect.
“I made 11 of my last 12 bags, and my opponent walked up to me and said, ‘I didn’t know who you were before we started, but I do now.’ I called my dad immediately when I was driving home. That’s when I knew I had something going for me,” Hughes says.
After paying for everything out of their pockets, Hughes and his partner, Tyler, drove to Myrtle Beach, S.C., to compete in the 2020 National College Cornhole Championships and earned the No. 8 seed after a round-robin tournament. That put them in a position to get their matches broadcast on ESPN if they could win one game.
Hughes and his partner did just that as they cruised past a duo from the University of South Carolina by a score of 21-0 and finished third in the country.
“It takes a lot to get to that level,” Hughes says. “I used to practice every day at school between classes and then go to blind draws just about every single night.”
After one year at VWU, Hughes transferred to Bridgewater College to be closer to home. At BC, he’s a SOAR Team Leader, Student Ambassador and captain of the men’s tennis team, earning second-team All-Old Dominion Athletic Conference honors. He will also join the College’s Madden team as an esports competitor in the fall. He’s cherished his time at Bridgewater and praises Eagles Head Tennis Coach Jordon Robinson and his professors for making BC such a great fit as he pursues a degree in health and exercise science with a minor in coaching.
In 2021, Hughes earned another appearance on ESPN with cornhole teammate Devin Page ‘21, a Bridgewater baseball player and business administration major. The duo beat the defending national champions but ultimately fell to a team from Auburn University in the semifinals.
“Competing on the big stage was fun,” Hughes says. “I’ve played sports my whole life and love the intensity of competition and thrive under those conditions. I believe everything is meant to be, so I never got caught up with nerves or pressure.”
— By Cody Elliott
