Bean bags take flight toward a wooden destination and land with a thud, as calls of "nice bag" from teammates and opponents ring out in friendly competition as old friends reunite and new friends are made in Wareham's growing cornhole community.

Every Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, Wareham's two cornhole clubs, the Usual Baggers and BadAss Cornhole organize an evening of tossing bags at Stone Path Malt.

Chris Matson and his wife are two organizers for the Usual Baggers, they got into cornhole five years ago, but didn't have a consistent place to play.

"We liked the sport and the people surrounding it but there wasn't really a venue to hold events locally," said Matson. "We've been coming to Stone Path for a longtime and after about a year and a half of begging, they let us do it."

Matson explained what started as a group of 20 people finding time in the evening to play cornhole has since turned into a friendly, yet competitive cornhole scene that routinely brings in 50 people a night, the maximum the clubs are allowed to have.

"We do it to grow the community," said Matson. "We have a bunch of kids from high school, they're getting scholarships from it and we're trying to give people something fun to do."

One of the high school students that frequently attends is Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical High School senior Evan Amaral of Acushnet.

Amaral is a member of the Upper Cape cornhole team and picked up the bags eight months ago where he has developed his skills to compete in professional tournaments.

Amaral explained cornhole tournaments often have a lower skill level and upper skill level division. While competing in his second ever professional tournament he said he won the tournament in the lower division and was moved up and had the opportunity to play against the best cornhole players in the world.

As the community has grown, Matson said the connections he and other participants have been able to make are some of the strongest they have in their lives.

"Out of everything I've really been a part of throughout my life, cornhole has been the one thing where everyone's really awesome," said Matson. "If I got into an accident and something happened I know for a fact that 80% of this community would back me, help me and help my wife through a difficult time."

George McGrady makes custom cornhole boards and has become a consistent member of Wareham's cornhole scene since picking up the sport in 2019. Throughout his five years, he said the game as taken him to many places.

"I've driven to New York, Western Mass and all the way to Maine," said McGrady.

Through his many travels, he said he has been able to make strong connections and has used cornhole as a way to support those around him.

"A friend's wife passed away and I made a set of boards and another buddy of mine got into a motorcycle accident and I made some boards and raffled them off and between the two we raised almost $8,000," said McGrady.

Matson added not only are the connections strong, but somewhat unexpected.

"I didn't expect to meet all these people but I would call half of them very close friends and the rest are awesome acquaintances," said Matson. "There's a lot of good memories and very few bad ones."