KYMA Sports Department wins inaugural company cornhole tournament
NBC 11's Scott Gross and Cole Johnson, "cool as cucumbers" during intense championship match
YUMA, Ariz. ( KYMA, KECY-TV ) - The excitement mirrored that of what a six year old may feel on Christmas morning. The anticipation of what might be waiting for them under the Christmas tree. On late Wednesday morning, the KYMA all staff BBQ was highlighted by the inaugural cornhole tournament. A total of 22 employees signed up for the event and upon arrival, the feelings of wonderlust, exhilaration and eager anxiety was palpable for what was about to take place. 48 hours prior, Pam Knight, in the dark depths of KYMA studios, drew the pairings for each team much like the NBA Lottery system. No one for sure knows or sees how it works.
The pairings were announced on Tuesday afternoon and on Wednesday morning, right at the start of the tournament, chaos started to ensure. Pam stood above the chaos and instead of allowing the event to resemble herding cats, Pam took charge and reformed teams with employees that were present. One team that emerged through the hysteria was that of the KYMA Sports Department in Scott Gross and Cole Johnson.
"I was supposed to be with Daivell Stokes," Johnson said. "Unfortunately he was in charge of the food and couldn't get out of the kitchen. I knew he was a pretty good player so I wasn't sure what to expect moving forward."
"I was really looking forward to playing with Brenda Rodriguez," Gross said. "I knew she was sneaky good."
It just so happened that Johnson and Gross were standing next to each other discussing the upcoming season of Friday Night Lights when Pam looked their way and paired them together on the fly.
"We can't wait for everyone to get here," Knight said. "We need to get this thing going and done by 2:00 p.m."
What was initially set up for nine and a half teams expanded with late comers to 11 teams.
"You paired Scott and Cole together?" NBC Anchor April Hettinger groaned. "The sports department for sure is going to win."
April may have foreshadowed what was to transpire in the next two hours or elevate the pressure and expectations on the sports department team.
In the opening round, the sports department faced stiff competition from Mike Read and Alfonso Media.
"I didn't tell anyone that I was in cornhole tournament a couple years ago," Read said. "It was definitely coming back to me."
Read and Medina kept the game close to the very end before the sports department narrowly pulled away.
"It finally clicked in my head late that we were allowed to go over 21 without penalty to get the win," Gross said. "Once I realized that I went for as many points as possible to put them away rather than trying to perfect getting to 21. It was the game changer we needed late. Those guys were good."
"Our toughest competition was probably in that first round," Johnson said. "They gave us a little scare and a little sweat. We thought we'd roll through the first couple rounds but Alfonso got hot in the end, made us sweat a little bit but we got through it."
The sports department escaped with a 23-18 win that sent them to the quarterfinals against Jonathan Noronha and Eric Sawyer from creative services.
"We kind of beat up on Jonathan and Eric," Johnson said. "That gave us some momentum heading into the semi-finals."
In the semifinals the sports department met Vinnie Aguilar and station general manager Dave Miller.
"We knew they were a pretty good team," Gross said. "They wouldn't be in the semifinals if they weren't. We didn't think about Dave's title going into it, all that got put aside. It was us versus them and we knew we had a job to do. We knew the pressure was on us and the expectations were high."
Because there were only 11 teams, the bracket became uneven in the semifinals. One team coming out of the quarterfinals would receive a bye and automatically advance to the championship. That team was suppose to be Dave Miller and Vinnie Aguilar but Che DuCharme felt that he and his teammate Daniel Guzman, should get the bye because they had a higher point differential. With the sports department not in the area to interject, the proposal was granted.
"We didn't feel that reflected that they were the better team," Gross said. "It just said they didn't play tough competition like we did. They didn't play the likes of Mike and Alfonso or Jonathan and Eric like we did. it is what it is and we just took the mentality of, okay, that's fine, we gotta beat the best to be the best. It kind of lit a fire in us."
The sports department rolled by Miller and Aguilar setting up the highly anticipated championship match against Guzman and DuCharme.
"I knew Che was really good, I think he has a stadium or shrine of some sorts set up at his place," Gross said. "I knew I had my work cut out for me and my job was to stay close to him. I channeled my inner softball pitcher, it's all about rhythm. I was relying on myself to stay close and match him while banking on Cole to handle Daniel."
From the start the match was back and forth with both teams exchanging leads. DuCharme and Guzman led 9-8 before the sports department pulled ahead.
"I'd say we were cool as a cucumber, I was feeling alright," Johnson said. "Definitely a tough group, Daniel, I underestimated Daniel a little bit, he had that little southpaw toss there, crunching the bag together. Different kinds of style and he had a couple of clutch throws there at the end to keep us close and push us back down to 15 when we went over, but Che definitely got hot early, but then he kind of fell off towards the end. That was huge. If Che stayed hot, we could have been in trouble."
"A few weeks back I cut my right hand on some glass," DuCharme said. "It was fine at first, I only needed three stitches but after the stitches were removed, it affected my golf grip and swing and also the way I toss the bags."
Leading by a score of 20-9, Scott Gross put the bag in the hole on his first throw to send the sports department back to 15.
"I was just trying to get the bag on the board," Gross said. "It was a good toss that just kept sliding. Two things can happen when something that happens. You can buckle under the pressure or you can prove your a champion and make up for it. I put us in that spot and it was my job to dig us out. That was my mentality. Cool as a cucumber, there was no worry."
With the score at 15-12, the sports department pulled away.
"Just persistence and consistency," Johnson said. "I think a lot of people freak out and tense up, they start to overthrow in a situation like that. We kept it together by getting point by point, getting the bags on and not letting them get too close to our tail."
In the end it was Gross who redeemed himself to put the final nail in the coffin and add the sports team into the history books as the inaugural cornhole tournament champions.
"I knew it's what I had to do, I built a little dam around the hole with the first two bags and then dropped the hammer on them," Gross said. "It felt good, damn good I should say. We had targets on our backs and like the elusive sasquatch, no one could accurately get us in the crosshairs long enough to pull the trigger and toe tag us."
"I could tell Che was taking some pretty deep breaths down the stretch and so was I," Johnson said. "We kept it cool and kept our composure. That was the biggest thing, being able to channel it and keep it down. Not get too low and not get too high. We kept it right in the middle and I feel that worked pretty well for us."
Johnson says not getting the bye actually helped.
"I think the momentum helps," Johnson said. "I like to look at it like the NFL playoffs. A lot of the teams that get that first round bye as a one seed always seem to come out a little sluggish in the divisional round. So I think that played out here too. We got going 30 seconds after the semifinal so I think that was a good start and we got rolling."
The sports department plans to celebrate the win over the weekend. The station is also planning to immortalize the duo play placing their photo and achievement in the company lounge. The team also holds a year worth of bragging rights.
"I'm a huge Minnesota fan, all sports," Gross said. "When Kevin Garnett won an NBA title with the Boston Celtics after leaving Minnesota and he exclaimed, anything is possible. That's what this win felt like. It'll be forever remembered and will never be taken away from us."
A big thank you to Pam Knight, Dave Miller, Yesi Rios, Daivell Stokes and the many others behind the scenes for all the food and for putting this entire event together.
