Three Canyon teams competed last Saturday in the first barbecue cookoff hosted at Canyon High School. All three teams qualified for the state contest.

Canyon High School has three teams, two coached by Brett and Laura Rosser along with digital design teacher Steven Thrasher. The third is coached by culinary arts teacher Kim Sharber. Canyon Black team consists of senior Canon Rosser, junior Jacob Quiroz and freshman Jerry Sixberry. Canyon Purple team consists of senior Tyler Schoenberger, junior Tanner Clements and freshman Daxstyn Mickey. Sharber’s team consists of freshmen Chase Sharber, Baylor West, BW Renner and Dustin Williams.

“Speaking for my team,[black team] we were third in dessert, first in chicken, sixth in ribs and second in brisket. We didn’t place in the beans category very well,” Canon said. “We ended up being second overall in the contest, we lost to a team by two points, which is a pretty small margin in this deal. So overall, it was a good showing at our first home contest and we were pretty happy with it.”

Thrasher said it is a lot of work to organize and host one of these cook offs and not many people know all of the planning that it takes.

“We compete through the sanctioning body, HS BBQ Inc,” Thrasher said. “Once you are selected to host an event, you send the information, the location and then they blast it out to all the members of that association. After that, all the members see the schedule and decide if they are going.”

There are five different categories the teams are scored on.

“For our contests, we cook five different meals,” Canon said. “We cook a dessert, beans, a chicken, a rib or a rack of ribs and brisket. This is competitive barbecue, we’re trying to get the maximum score out of one bite. The judges get a plastic fork and a knife, and they get one bite of your specific tray”

Canon said they spend a lot of time practicing and perfecting each recipe before they take them to contest.

“It can be a challenge to get everybody at one place at one time to practice,” Canon said. “We really try to practice as much as we can, as often as we can. Oftentimes on the weekdays, after school or we’ll cook a chicken or cook a pot of beans to just help prepare and perfect our recipes.”

This won’t be the first time for several members to compete at state, last year the Canyon Smokeshow qualified for the first time during their first year as a team. 

“It was kind of an odd year, so we had four people on that team,” Schoenenberger said. “It was me, Kade Lawrence, Surcy Peoples, and Canon Rosser, but Canon and Surcy just could not make it to state. Kade and I went, so then we picked up Ty Clark and Hadley Dear before we went to state. We placed 14th in chicken and that was it. But there were I think 85 teams.”

All three barbecue teams will compete at the barbecue state competition in the spring.