July 26, 2024—The MSO cornhole tournament will have a decidedly different look with new branded playing boards, thanks to coordinators Dennis and Fran Bass, who know good boards when they play on them. They are two-time National Senior Games silver medalists in doubles.

As the story goes, MSO needed boards when we started the cornhole tournament in 2022. We purchased four basic sets. But experienced players recognized the boards allowed too much bounce.

“Dennis and I noticed the boards could benefit from a few adjustments,” Fran said. “We added cross braces to the back of the boards before the 2023 tournament. This helped to minimize the amount the cornhole bags would bounce, making them feel more like professional boards.”

MSO cornhole coordinators Dennis and Fran Bass show off one of the upgraded boards we have, starting at this year’s tournament in Silver Spring.

Then, during last year’s tournament, Fran and MSO director Stacy Sigler discussed giving the boards a personalized look by adding our logo. That would also allow Dennis and Fran to provide them with a coat of Polycrylic to make bags slide more like they do on professional boards.

The timing was perfect for these fixes. Early last spring, we asked designer Jenine Zimmers to draft a concept for this year’s t-shirts that we give to each registered participant. Jenine didn’t give us one concept; she gave us eight! We loved all of them and used one for the MSO Steamer the Crab logo on the cornhole boards. The firm Shannon-Baum in Eldersburg did the graphics work.

The new/old boards arrived in time for us to give a sneak peek at the disc golf tournament in Emmitsburg. “We thought it would be great to show them off and possibly help generate some more interest for this year’s cornhole tournament,” Fran said.

Based on the reaction we received from the disc golfers and our social media posts, the branded boards are a big hit. The MSO cornhole tournament is Sunday, Oct. 13, at Schweinhaut Senior Center in Silver Spring.