Butchering became a family gathering that usually took place in December or January. For me, it was a highlight of getting through the winter. Along with butchering, he also cured and smoked his own bacon, hams, dry beef and ring bologna. He passed away when I was 10 years old. I sometimes wonder how different my barbecue journey would’ve been had he lived a longer life. How many of his recipes would be a part of our plan, how much more experience I would have had.  I miss him greatly.

Fast forward to 2006, while living in Kansas City, I met a future friend who was cooking competition barbecue. My friend and his brother were only doing one contest a year, which was the American Royal Barbecue. At that point the Royal was still being held in the West Bottoms where the old stockyards used to be. Coincidentally, I was working for a company that was based out of the Livestock Exchange Building. He invited me to come help/cook with his team. Looking back, I realize that they probably weren’t there to win the contest. They had a band, I think they went through 8 kegs of beer on the Friday night party night, and they had a ton of food. That weekend was so much fun. My thought was someday I want to compete in the American Royal.  Little did I know just how much work this really was.

In 2016, Stacy and I had just started dating and we attended the Big Blue Barbecue in Marysville as a way for me to show off my hometown.   It sparked my interest in competition barbecue again. At this point I’d been smoking meat for about 12 years in my own cheap smoker I had bought at a big box store. In late 2017, I asked my uncle if he’d be interested in doing the Big Blue Barbecue in Marysville next year. He said sure, and Stacy was on board as well. Uncle Bob and I decided we should probably build a smoker. We started our smoker build with a 150-gallon propane tank. We had no idea that this thing was going to be way too big for what we needed for competition.

Unfortunately, we didn’t make our deadline to compete in the 2018 Big Blue Barbecue. However, we did make it to the Keepers of the Fire Barbecue competition at Prairie Band Casino two weeks later. Stacy, Bob, Stacy’s son Adam, and my two buddies Phil and Kyle all attended.  Like the competition back in 2006 at the American Royal, I think us guys thought it was a beer drinking contest!  We drank way too much. Bob and I slept through an alarm, woke up to what was almost a cold smoker. We somehow managed to save it. For some crazy reason, we did not get dead ass last. That was a win for us!

After the contest was over, this tall guy that had been cooking across the way from us with his sweet rig plastered in Shake and Bake Barbecue and Blues Hog Barbecue came over to say hi. He gave us a jar of his sauce. I had never heard of him or his sauce. I had to google him when we got home. Little did we know he was kind of a big deal in the barbecue competition world. His name is Tim Scheer, maybe you’ve heard of him (LOL!).  He asked how our cook went; we told him it was our first contest and about the drinking debacle the night before.   He said everybody out here has been there. He was super nice and basically you can only go up from here.

After the debacle at Prairie Band, we knew we had to take this more seriously. On Labor Day weekend we went up to Omaha to compete at a barbecue contest there. The team next to us was Unfamous Dave’s BBQ KC. Dave and Karen were so nice to us. They gave us some much needed helpful tips, pointers, etc. We still run into them on the competition road, and it’s so great to see them. The funny thing about this Omaha competition was they had a chicken wing contest. The promoter was going around asking if we would be interested in cooking wings. They provided 5 pounds of wings, all we had to do was cook them and turn them in. It was a people‘s choice contest. None of our KCBS meets scored good that day, but Stacy‘s wings got second place. I probably should’ve known at that point that she was better at this than I was!

It wasn’t until 2022 that we made it to our first American Royal competition. The original crew of Bob, Stacy and I signed up for the full-blown open competition.  This is a big undertaking. Not only did it consist of the four typical KCBS meats of Chicken, Ribs, Pork and Brisket, but also Turkey, Sausage, Vegetables, Beans, Potatoes and Dessert. At the end of the day, we didn’t feel like any of our cook went well. As a result, we didn’t stay for awards, after all what was the point? Well, we should have stayed as we ended up getting 22nd in sausage! Our first call at the American Royal!

Since then, we’ve made it to two more Royals, getting a call in Sausage each time.  This last year we were two points away from having a perfect score.  Our hard work and consistency are paying off!  Personally, I think that’s a pretty good feat!  After the Royal I love checking in on Facebook to see how other teams fared in the competition.  One of the pitmasters I follow is Darren Warth from Smokey D’s BBQ.  He was this year’s 1st place winner in Sausage.  While I’ve not met Darren personally, there was something about his post that just clicked.  He had written about the fun, seeing old friends, etc., but the kicker for me was where he said they were world champions again, this time in sausage.  That’s when it dawned on me, I want to be known as a world champion too. A serious competitor.  We’ve come a long way from that first cook!

That’s why this year, for my 50th birthday, we are taking our first BBQ class.  We signed up with Brad Leighninger of Gettin’ Basted. He has won a tremendous number of accolades.  He’s been KCBS team of the year multiple times, he’s won the Jack in Lynchburg, Tennessee, him and Tim Shearer teamed up to win Memphis in May this last year.  He got 2nd last year on Food Network’s BBQ Brawl and had the opportunity to learn from Bobby Flay. The list goes on and on… we figured why start small!? Go big or go home! Needless to say, we have high hopes for what this 2026 season will bring!