Smokin’ Rams BBQ Club sends four teams to nationals

Four Del Rio High School barbecue teams are headed to the national stage after the Smokin’ Rams BBQ Club came home from Burnet High School with four qualifiers out of seven teams entered at the Texas High School BBQ Association state championship.

Calcifer’s Crew, Ram Country Grillers, Smokin’ Broz and Del Rio Blue Crew all advanced after the May 2 competition, sending Del Rio students to the National High School BBQ Association championship June 7-10 at SCHEELS Grandscape in The Colony. The state contest pushed teams through categories that included grilled cheese, ribeye, Dutch oven dessert, chicken, ribs and pork butt, giving students a pressure test that went well beyond a simple cookout.

For Val Verde County, the result marked more than a good showing. The Smokin’ Rams is still a young program, now in its third year of competition, but it has already become one of Del Rio ISD’s most visible student success stories. The club was launched in December 2023 as the district’s newest Career and Technical Education organization in the Hospitality and Tourism cluster under Chef Adan Cortez, and it now serves as the official Career and Technical Student Organization for the Culinary Arts Program. It is open to students from sixth through 12th grade, creating a pipeline that starts in middle school and can carry all the way to national competition.

That structure has mattered. The National High School BBQ Association says its live-fire program uses barbecue competition to teach leadership, career skills and life skills through project-based learning, and Del Rio’s teams have shown how quickly those lessons can translate into results. Students, coaches and family members gathered before sunrise in the Burnet High School parking lot, a reminder that the program’s rise has depended on long practice hours, close mentorship and the kind of backing that comes from home.

The 2026 advance also builds on last year’s momentum. In 2025, Del Rio sent three teams to state and earned a national berth after posting the top ribeye in Texas. This spring, the club widened that success to four national qualifiers, with support from mentors including Jessica Fuentes, Juan Fuentes, Scott Nebel, Gabriel Zapata, Gregorio Castro and Mark Rodriguez. For Del Rio, that means the Smokin’ Rams are no longer just a novelty. They are a growing point of pride, and now a local team ready to represent Val Verde County on a national stage.