High school students across Texas cooked up something good in Fort Worth and left town with prizes and pride.
The Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo hosted its inaugural High School Barbecue Competition last weekend. Teams from 27 high schools as far as the Corpus Christi area to as close as Mansfield loaded up smokers and equipment to come cook in Cowtown. They set up in a parking lot on the grounds of the Will Rogers Memorial Center on a beautiful Saturday morning.
"This is the whole atmosphere because back in the old days when we had the rodeos, we had barbecue. So to bring it back around like this and bring it to Cowtown, you can't beat this. This is awesome," said Jimmie Green, a coach and barbecue team sponsor at Ben Barber Innovation Academy in the Mansfield ISD.
Mansfield has sent two teams to other competitions in previous years and both had done well. The four students competing in Fort Worth consisted of members from both those earlier teams.
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"So, this one team should be a superstar team, but we've got to come out and make sure that we do everything right," Green said. "Everything is very critical as we have to stay on point and stuff and you have to stay grounded, too, because if you get a little too cocky and stuff, it will get you every time and stuff and barbecue will humbly you in a heartbeat."
"I'm gonna tell you right now and I tell the people this all the time, this is the truth. You can put these kids against any adult cooking team out there in America, and I I guarantee you, they would give them a run for their money," said Chuck Schoenfeld, a 25-year competition cooker who started the nonprofit High School Barbecue Incorporated in 2018. He wanted an organization that would allow students "to learn the art of live fire cooking through the barbecue world. We also give away scholarships at every competition to give them the opportunity to go to college, to help them go to college."
The teams were judged in five categories from dessert to beans to chicken, pork ribs and beef brisket. Students did every bit of the work from selecting the cut of meat to smoke to creating the dessert recipes. Groups of judges, one for each category, tasted the entries from the 27 teams to find the winners.
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After it was all done, the Stateline Smokers from Newton High School in Newton were named the Grand Champion team. The Reserve Grand Champion title went to the Sizzlin’ Rangers of Greenwood High School in Midland. The 3rd Overall Team was Mustang Smoke from Ingleside High School in Ingleside.
Every member of the Grand Champion team earned a $3,000 scholarship; $2,000 each for the Reserve Grand Champs and $1,500 each for members of the third place team.
And if they could've, organizers would've given an award to the stock show.
"What a great venue. You couldn't ask for a better place to have a competition," Schoenfeld said. "They've taken care of the students. They have belt buckles, which they don't get it at every cook-off. They have belt buckles here and a lot of scholarship money they're giving away."
There are 10 more competitions on the way to the state championship next April.
