The Jena High School BBQ Club will be sending two teams to the national championships this summer following the Louisiana State High School BBQ Championships held Saturday, March 21 at JHS.
With so many students now involved in the BBQ club at Jena, sponsor Robyn Miller had members compete to be part of two separate teams, the Jena Pitbosses and the Jena Blazing Giants.
On Saturday, the two teams squared off for the 2026 Louisiana championship.
“They have to prepare everything themselves with no assistance from adults, from starting and maintaining fires and temperatures, to prep work to the actual cooking,” Miller said. “They started early Saturday morning and had different turn in times for the various competitions.”
The event ended with the final turn in of St. Louis ribs at 3 p.m. Other items the teams had to prepare were Grilled Cheese, Dutch Oven Cake, Chicken Lollipops and Ribeye Steak.
Judging was performed by various community members where everything was judged and scored. At the end of the day, the Jena Blazing Giants was named the Louisiana State Champions and the Jena Pitbosses won Reserve Champion.
Both teams earned the right to compete in the National Championships set to take place June 7-10, at SCHEELS Colony Grandscape in Colony, TX.
Erickson said that the national championship, which will feature nearly 100 teams from across the nation, will be held in Louisiana in 2028, most likely in the Ruston or north Louisiana area. He noted that next year, more Louisiana high schools will have BBQ clubs organized and competing in the state championships (always to be held in Jena) and even though the 2028 National Championship will not be in Jena, the Jena BBQ Club would be the host club.
Jena’s club was organized last year as the first club in the state. They now have two state championships to their claim.
Winners in the individual events at the state competition were:
Grilled Cheese – Zeke Curry/Blazing Giants Dutch Oven Cake – Jesilyn Poole/Blazing Giants Chicken Lollipops – Carson Hughart/Pitbosses St. Louis Ribs – Jonas Breithaupt/Pitbosses Ribeye Steak – Matthew Jones/Blazing Giants
