MN's first professional cornhole player reflects on rookie season

KIMT News 3 Sports - A Kasson native is Minnesota's first professional cornhole athlete. 

Lexi Hugeback is making some noise in her first season as a pro. 

It all started at a family campground. 

"We were just playing and people were like we should play at this tournament.  And so I played and my tournaments got bigger.  And my biggest tournament at the time, there were professionals there and they were like hey, you need to get into this," says Lexi. 

Now she just wrapped up her rookie season as Minnesota's first professional cornhole athlete. 

Hugeback says the mental game is huge in this sport and it's something she wants to get better at. 

She just competed at the World Competition in South Carolina, where athletes try to qualify or re-qualify as a professional. 

And she re-qualified. 

"I didn't perform as well as I wanted to, but still just being out there playing is something I've been waiting for for months," says Lexi. 

She hurt her back earlier this year and had to take a few months off before getting back into the sport she loves. 

And she is ready to get back to work for next season. 

"I am very proud of myself because if I can re-qualify being hurt and going through what I went through, I can't imagine what I can do when I'm back to 100%.  So I'm ready.  I'm hungry for it," says Lexi. 

The professional cornhole season starts again in October.