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www.SteakCookoffs.com Building The Sport Of Steak Cookoffs! It’s Here By the time you read this we will be right smack dab in the middle of the SCA Steak World Championships in Ft. Worth, Texas. If you haven’t made plans to be here, well, unless you live in Texas, you’ll just have to get it on your calendar for next year. The cool thing is, it’s the same weekend every year so mark it down and get practicing for the Golden Ticket, which is precisely what we’ll be talking about as you read this. But how can we look so far ahead without first talking about the weekend we’re enjoying now. Looking on the surface of the schedule, you’d think SCA weekend is one big family reunion with a couple cook-offs thrown in to make it “official” and you’d be right, if you only looked at the surface. Diving deeper into this, you’ll see all the moving gears making this a premier food sport event, something Ken & Brett take seriously. I’ve spent a lot of time with these two and to say a good time always seems to follow them would be an understatement. But when it comes to the SCA and the World Championships, they begin planning just as soon as its over so they can make it great, not for them, but for the cooks who have worked so hard to get to this point. The weekend kicks off with a welcome party for all the in- ternational teams who have earned their way to Ft. Worth. We truly appreciate our International SCA representatives who have helped make the SCA a phenomenon in the food sport world. When you win the SCA, you truly are a world champion having out cooked some of the best steak cookers on 6 continents. I know there are other world championships throughout the cooking community, but very few can truly back this up for the winner. Ken & Brett recognize that one of the 300 teams here will be crowned World Champion, so they roll out the red carpet, literally. Walking in Friday night, I feel like I’m at a red-carpet gala for some Hollywood movie premier or even the Oscars. Media is there reporting on the spectacle as we see spots because of so many cameras going off. Some are being interviewed while you look around to see 3-time points champion Johnny Joseph chatting it up with other champions like Eric Hod- son and Terry Roan. Oh, to be a fly on the wall at this event. Wait, I am and next year you could be as well. I’ve been to a couple SCA events where there is close to 100 teams and several with 50-60 but this is nothing compared to championship weekend with 300. How can one do some- thing with this amount of cooks? Well, the SCA team will do it and I’m thankful to be here to see. This number of teams rivals major BBQ events like the American Royal, which was just a couple weeks ago, but they pull it off with- out a hitch. There’s old saying about being a duck, people only see what’s above the water and never see the duck paddling their feet like crazy. Ken & Brett have been pad- dling like crazy this year all for this weekend and it shows with the calmness we see this first weekend of October. SCA Partner Spotlight Grill Grates Looking around at every steak contest you will see Grill Grates on each grill from Weber to PK to Pit Barrell Cooker. Brad and his team have been remarkable part- ners helping not only our com- petitors turn in beautiful steaks but our backyard cooks as well. Thank you Brad and Grill Grates for all you do for the SCA and steak cooks everywhere. ACE Hardware Points Race At this writing, the top spot is pretty much locked down with Matt Ouverson and we will be crowning yet another first time SCA Points Champion. However, the rest of the points race is anyone’s game with Terry Roan, Mark Huntly, John Lindsey and Cody Avery all in a tight bat- tle for 2nd. You’re just going to make sure you are there to see how all of this shakes out. OCTOBER 2019 BarbecueNews.com - 11