Thanks to the popularity of reality television, we’ve had a front row seat to the exciting world of competition BBQ, and the enthusiasm doesn’t seem to be diminishing. With the attention viewers and consumers have given to the food sport, it comes as no surprise that the interest in cooking smoked meats competitively has trickled down to the high school level. Places like Texas having competition BBQ squads or teams in high school seem like a no brainer since BBQ is about as big as football in Texas. As popular as BBQ is in the south, it’s not quite caught on as the new high school sport in Georgia just yet! But that’s changing thanks to one man and his passion for teaching kids how to make award winning ‘que.
Tom Tilley, former head basketball coach at Tallulah Falls School in Clarkesville, Georgia, was asked by the administration of the school to start a club for the upper school students. He jokingly said he’d start a BBQ Club for the kids, and despite numerous difficulties getting it off the ground, the club became a reality, and the TFS Pit Vipers were born. TFS has had a team of high school students competing in the backyard division of the Kansas City Barbecue Society (KCBS) since 2018, starting at a local competition in Cornelia, Georgia. Typically a backyard division competition consists of cooking chicken and ribs but will sometimes also include pork and brisket as ancillaries. They’ve been averaging 4 to 5 competitions a year since then with the exception of 2020 due to Covid related cancellations of most BBQ competitions in the country.
The Pit Vipers won their first Grand Championship in August of 2019 at Kennesaw, Georgia’s Pigs & Peaches. After that win, they garnered the attention of a lot of big names in barbecue who’ve been encouraging the kids ever since. The school now treats the club as an official team sport and celebrates all the success that the Pit Vipers have just as they would for any other sport at the school. Prior to Covid several teachers involved in the professional competition side of Georgia compeition BBQ were talking about working to get a Georgia High School BBQ Association off the ground. Now that things are slowly moving back to a more normal way of life, hopefully this will spark new talks around implementing this as a high school sport.
The Pit Vipers have competed in 3 events so far this year with another 8 planned including the 2021 KCBS World Invitational. To qualify for the World Invitational, a backyard team needs to win at least once in the chicken and rib categories, and the Pit Vipers have already done that within the first 3 competitions of the year.
Springer Mountain Farms is a proud partner of the TFS Pit Vipers and provides chicken for all of their competitions. As of April 16th, the Pit Vipers were ranked #5 in ribs in the country and #10 in chicken out of all backyard barbecue teams competing in KCBS. “We are doing very well at this time. We have great recipes with young pitmasters that can really cook. I am super proud of these kids,” says Head Pitmaster & Coach, Tom Tilley. Springer Mountain Farms is too, and is a proud partner of the TFS Pit Vipers and provides chicken for all of their competitions. We wish them continued success for the rest of the competition year and applaud their dedication and determination to compete in a very talented field of adult pitmasters.
