It has been a year of firsts for the Rookies Sports Grill barbecue cooking team.
Not only is this the first year the Mandeville, La.-based team has cooked on either the amateur or the professional level, but it also brought them their first championship title as they were crowned the overall champion Saturday during the 2010 Grilling on the River barbecue championship.
Chad Edwards, the head cook, and his team, which includes Thomas Lvaudais, Don Woofolk, John Wheeler, Devon Lewis and Jonathan Hixler, said this is a new experience for the team. It was only their second contest. Last week they finished fifth overall in a contest in Slidell, La., and placed third in the brisket category, he said.
Rookies on Saturday unseated the defending overall winner, Wild Bunch Butt Burners, from Atmore, Ala. The team of John and Kathy Swift were named the reserve champions.
Rookies received a check of $1,500 to go along with a stained glass trophy and Wild Bunch received $750 as reserve champs.
In order to be named overall champion, a cooking team had to score in the four barbecue cooking categories: chicken, ribs, pork and brisket. The points are added and the team with the highest total was named the winner.
Edwards said he felt the team would do well with the brisket, but the other three would get them through.
“We knew our chicken, ribs and pork would be the ones to get a good score,” he said.
Awards were given to professional and amateur teams.
The top three winners in the chicken category were Pop”s Blazin” Smokers of Livingston, La., the Wild Bunch Butt Burners and Rookies.
Rookies won the ribs category, followed by K&K Kookers of Southaven and Late Night Whiskey Smokers, from Lynchburg, Tenn.
In the brisket category, The Long Dawgs of Smyrna, Tenn., won first place, with T-N-T Smokers, of Bartlett, Tenn. finishing in reserve. The team of cancersuckschicago.com of Westmont, Ill., followed.
In the amateur division, the cooking team known as Chuck Wagon, from Gallion, Ala., won the chicken category, with 3 Little Pigs, from Maylene, Ala., as reserve winners. Finishing third was Bama Butts, of Steens.
Bama Butts won the ribs category with Micheal”s of Columbus second, and Poker Players, of Mobile, Ala., in third.
Bama Butts was named the amateur grand champion and Chuck Wagon was the reserve winner.
Two new categories in the “Anything Butts” division had winners in the sweet potato and the catfish categories.
Grilling on the River organizer Harvey Myrick said this division is judged by the people who attend the event, not the contest judges.
“This category is devoted to products from Mississippi,” he said.
Among the top three winners listed in the sweet potato category, Late Night Whiskey Smokers won first place, Big Easy Smoking Time, of Columbus, was second, and Thin Blue Smoke BBQ, of Madison, was third.
The top three winners in the catfish category were Sardis Lake Smokers, of Sardis, in first place, with Big Easy Smoking Team, of Columbus, coming in second and BBQ”rs Delight, of Pine Bluff, Ark., in third.
Myrick said proceeds from this event go to the Columbus-Lowndes Humane Society.
“Also, we are raising money for Cystic Fibrosis. We want to help children and adults as well as the animals,” he said.
Ron Werstler of Mobile, Ala., whose son suffers from the disease, said he came to the event to raise funds for people who need double lung transplants.
“There are some who do not have the money or a donor. I am here to raise awareness about this,” he said.
Allen Baswell was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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