The Southlake Carroll BBQ team is striving to protect the tradition. Recently, the team has earned success in the State Championship, been featured on an HBO Max TV show called “BBQ High” and is recognized as one of the best BBQ teams in Texas. Much of that success has been thanks to long-time coach and founder Mr. Ken Goodman, but the team is blazing a new trail with Coach Breece Higgins.
Goodman has been in the district for around 20 years, but founded the BBQ team just five years ago.
“There wasn’t really any option for culinary and I have always loved cooking,” Goodman said. “So when I found out there was a high school BBQ league in Texas, I thought it was the perfect idea.”
The BBQ team quickly gained ground and started to compete against other schools. Over the next few years, they kept winning different regionals and became a dominant team in Texas with their award-winning desserts: the key lime cheesecake and the pineapple upside-down cake.
The high school BBQ competition is based on five categories: dessert, beans, chicken, ribs and brisket. They start cooking at 6 a.m. and different foods are submitted at different times throughout the day, with the competition lasting up to nine hours. Foods are judged by six judges and are scored based on preparation, taste, appearance, texture and tenderness.
The team got so big that they even drew the attention of the Magnolia Network who wanted to feature them in their new show, “BBQ High.” The show is about Texas high schoolers competing for the BBQ state title, which featured teams from Arlington, Southlake Carroll and Mansfield. It aired last August on Magnolia Network. The show covered Texas high school teenagers in their senior year, competing for the state championship and scholarship awards, documenting their journeys and capturing the life decisions they faced during their final year of high school.
Goodman had his doubts about allowing the students to take part in the show, but eventually caved in as they kept winning. The show covered senior Cami O’Neal and her dessert team in the 2023-2024 season, but it proved to be a challenge.
“It is a lot to deal with,” Goodman said. “When you are competing, you have a lot of turn-ins all throughout the day, so I have to make sure everyone’s on task. When you have a film crew in there saying do that again, I had to direct a little bit. It was a challenge.”
Despite the balancing of trying to win the state championship and the TV show, they had a lot of success that year. They finished at least first or second in every regional they competed in, but ended up falling short of the state title.
All of these successes made the Southlake BBQ team nationally recognized and they could not do it without Goodman.
“Mr. Goodman was always super encouraging and put his full faith in us,” junior Darien Kawai said. “He never doubted our abilities.”
With his support and leadership, the BBQ continued to have successes. This past May, they won the reserve state championship, which is equivalent to a state title. However, following the win at the state championship, Goodman decided to step down from the team.
Goodman and his wife are starting a new business venture, where they will conduct food tours out of Globe Life Ballpark. Simply put, he would not have enough time to manage the BBQ team and his new business venture.
Now, a new coach looks to enter the pit: Assistant Coach Breece Higgins.
“I started cooking from the beginning, never was part of the competition, but had always done Friday night cooking at the games,” Higgins said, “[Goodman’s] great, he knows a lot more about cooking than I do. We have already shifted the teams a little bit; we moved it down to three teams versus four this year.”
Higgins aims to continue the legacy of the BBQ team, with a little help from Coach Goodman, who serves as an advisor. As the BBQ team goes into this next season, both coaches are excited about what they can do with only one graduating senior. As the BBQ team looks to continue the legacy, they hope to give ’em some smoke as their season starts on Feb. 8 with their first official competition at Bridgeport High School.
“They are pretty much turned loose,” Goodman said, “All the kids know what they are doing and have already won one. I think they are going to do really well.”
