Trends is a common theme today.
So are sporty trends.
Take cornhole for instance. The game of cornhole had been around for dozens of years prior to really taking off and getting noticed globally until around the early 2000’s.
Now, you can find the cornhole board in all sizes, from adults to kid size boards and bags.
You can also find the sport on television on ESPN for professional cornhole tournaments. You also have the best kept secret in the Alleghany Highlands, the Alleghany Highland Baggers cornhole group (which have been talked about in latest editions).
Much like cornhole, spikeball became the next big trend.
Spikeball was typically designed a team sport played by two sets of teams with two players, much like cornhole. You line up across from one another with the spikeball net in the center. The goal when the ball is in play by a serve, the opposing team is to hit the ball back into the net with the hope of their opponent who served to be unable to spike the ball back into the net.
The game, also like cornhole, had already been out for dozens of years and took off to be well known a few years after cornhole’s popularity boosted. You will see spikeball more often at the beach than anywhere else.
And now today’s growing sport trend, disc golf.
Designed in the early 1900’s in Canada, the first game was played in 1927 in Bladworth, Saskatchewan.
The game itself didn’t fully get recognized until 2007 around the time cornhole became larger and spikeball was getting more traction.
Today disc golf is finally reaching the popularity heights that cornhole and spikeball had seen.
Just last year in 2021, coverage of some of the biggest disc golf events reached upwards to 82 million cable households.
Now disc golf is still not well-known by many. So what is disc golf, it’s known as Frisbee Golf. It’s a disc sport in which players throw a disc at a target, much like in golf and it is also played using rules similar to golf. You can throw the disc however you want to. Throw it like a frisbee into the wind or sideways. The goal at the end of it is much like golf and it’s to hit your target.
What’s fascinating about these sports, is they all have been grown organically.
Today, you see all three of these played all over. These sporting games while are “trendy”, continue to grow.
Now it bolds the question, how long before the Alleghany Highlands picks up on the trend and puts in a disc golf course or a few disc golf goals to start.
The other question could be is how long before it becomes not just a school club, but a completive school sport.
Right now across the nation, dozens of schools offer the game not just as a school club, but as an actual competitive sport.
This game of disc golf is fun and can be for the whole family, but it is a growing sport.
The closest disc golf course is in Troutville at the Botetourt Sports Complex.
If you haven’t played the game before, go on out and try it.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.