The Carroll ISD students competed in five categories to capture the title.
Southlake Carroll High School is filled with opportunity. In pretty much every hall and on pretty much every wall are signs of success.
However, for one group of students, their avenue to achievement just went up in smoke.
“I was super surprised,” senior Thien-Nhanryan Vu said. “Like, this is really crazy.”
“I never expected to take it this far,” added senior Caden Roberson.
Five years ago, when Southlake Carroll started a competitive barbecue team, these kids didn’t know the first thing about smoking meat.
But Ken Goodman, the coach who started the team, says, nevertheless, they embraced it.
“You start at 4:30 in the morning, that means you get up at 3:30 in the morning,” Goodman said. “You don’t get done until 6 o’clock in the evening and then you got to drive four hours home sometimes, so they have to want to do this.”
“It’s a lot more work than I expected beforehand,” Vu said.
The kids compete regularly, mostly in regional competitions around the state, cooking brisket, ribs, chicken, beans and desserts.
In the beginning, there were a few successes and a lot of failures.
“We did have a little bit of struggle, but we all started to really hone things in,” said senior Preston Inouye.
“Sometimes when you start out it’s not the best, but boy by the end, it’s really good,” Goodman said.
“It’s cool seeing you get better every time,” Vu added.
They really had improved.
In fact, since that inaugural year the team has qualified for the state tournament every year since, where just last month, they enjoyed the taste of victory.
The team barbecued its way to the state championship, a year after finishing runner-up.
“It was exhilarating,” Vu said.
“State is hard,” Goodman said. “I don’t care if you’re doing it for football, baseball, anything. To win state is hard because you’re going against a lot of really good teams.”
Getting to the top took sacrifice. It meant giving up weekends and working when most of their classmates were sleeping.
Even more amazing, none of the kids on this year’s team are going to culinary school, nor are they planning culinary careers.
They say barbecue will serve them well regardless.
“You’ve got to be able to ask other people to help you, you’ve got to work with them to help them,” Vu said. “It’s a lot of teamwork skills you develop.”
No matter what they do, they’re seasoned for success.