Page 15 - MAY 2020 Barbecue News Magazine

tle Rock, I was fortunate enough to judge this event on a very cold and wintry day. However, Ken and Brett looked very seriously at the possibility
of taking steak competition to a
new level. Early on, they won the Magnolia World Steak Championship in Magnolia, AR.
Their first event was in the Fall
of 2013 in North Texas where
Grill Grates was their first spon-
sor and continues to sponsor
SCA today. They organized sev-
eral steak cook-offs in Texas
with a variety of successes.
Their early contests did not
have a lot of rules and structure
and it was soon evident that the
structure needed to be devel-
oped. This evolved into the
Steak Cook-off Association, an
international steak competition
organization that quickly grew
into a significant organization.
During 2014, the first full year, they had 18 contests. In 2015 they grew to 55 contests. Today they are approaching 500 contests annually. Their World Championship last year had nearly 300 teams competing in the their headquarter's town of Ft Worth. Ken and Brett personally welcomed me to the World Championship where I had the privilege to judge. (photo) Their growth in membership, contests, cook teams, judges, organizers and reps just continue to expand and there appear to be no borders to their organization.
Ken earned the name "The Mayor" and this follows him everywhere. Things happen at competition events but when the Mayor is there — problems seem to vanish. At least all of us involved are never aware of the crisis and it just gets taken care of. I believe I had the privilege to wel- come Ken to his first SCA contest in Florida, the Sonny's Invitational. (photo) This event was held in the Citrus Bowl in Orlando. Fortunately, he has blessed our Florida events many times since then. Ken goes with the punches. He crowned a Queen for her domination of the Ancillary events, crowning Judy Jones with a golden cape and tiara. He also kept peace in that family when Casey earned first place in the Steak C competition in Brooksville, FL. Ancil- lary events can become very interesting. We judged in a blueberry orchard last year and the ancillary was anything prepared with blueberries. We have seen seafood, chili, burgers, and yes, even spam. Perhaps the most fun and cer- tainly the most impressive of the auxiliaries are the Bloody Marys. Here is where the contestants get creative with the food items dressing up the bloodies. (photo) Plus, judging these contests is a lot of fun.
Similar to most BBQ organizations, the SCA has grown as a
family. I am an SCA Prime Judge and have had the opportu- nity to observe this family firsthand. I have seen cooks ar-
rive without a key piece of equipment, missing a rub, etc. The family always steps forward and takes care of their own. You never hear a cook downgrading another cook or criticizing the equipment someone else is using or bashing a new cook just starting out. Everyone is there to not only compete, and win themselves, but always willing to help and lend a hand to one of their competing teams. It is a great organization to be part of.
At the time of this writing our wonderful country is essentially shut down due to the COVID-19 Virus. Gathering of more than 10 people is prohibited and So- cial Distancing is required across the country. This has
shut down all the Steak Competitions in the US as well as all the BBQ contest events. Ken came up with a temporary solution for this situation. SCA will be holding a virtual hamburger competition, where no one attends! How this will be organized is still in the development stage, so the details are not available. But, this will keep steak competi- tion alive among the membership and allow the cooks to compete, the judges to judge, and keep SCA alive and pros- pering. This is yet another example of Ken's creativity. He saw the impact of canceled contests, and stay at home or- ders from community leaders, so he had to come up with something to keep SCA alive, and out front for everyone. A virtual contest was the answer. I am looking forward to see- ing how this comes together. SCA is here to stay and we can look forward to a very long and bright future for this organization. A major part of the foundation that will keep this organization alive is Ken Phillips.
MAY 2020
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