Our Culinary Teacher, Mr. Thompson, who founded Kuna's first high school BBQ Team, shared with us the exciting things they did this last weekend.:
This weekend was a pretty incredible step for the Kuna High Smokers, Idaho’s first high school BBQ team. Our students stepped out of the culinary classroom and into the second annual Meat & Tater BBQ competition in Meridian Idaho, where they found themselves surrounded by World Champions, Grand Champions, Reserve Grand Champions, and some of the best competition pitmasters from across the United States and across the globe. Kuna High School Smokers were fortunate enough to team up with Oak & Iron BBQ, one of the Top 10 teams in the Idaho Barbecue Association, who welcomed our students into their pit and actually put them to work. They taught our students how competition meats are trimmed, seasoned, prepared, and injected. How flavors are built throughout the cooking process, what judges are looking for, how much timing, teamwork, and attention to detail goes into putting a competition box on the judging table. You can teach temperatures, cuts, and cooking techniques in a classroom, but you can’t recreate standing shoulder to shoulder with championship pitmasters. With smoke rolling through the pits and the turn in clock counting down. Jacob Nulle, Cole Dreher, Jace Eaton, Gregory Irish, Colten Riley, Jacob Wideman, Kohen Smith, Patrick Kern, TJ Price, and Dominyk Perez were part of it all. These students represented Kuna High School incredibly well. I was proud of the way they jumped in, asked questions, worked together and learned. A huge thank you to Oak & Iron (Jason, Tom, Cody and Rachel) for sharing years of hard earned knowledge with our students and treating them like part of the team. Mr. Thompson started the Kuna High Smokers club to give students opportunities that go beyond classroom, and this weekend showed exactly what that can look like. This was our second event in the BBQ realm, the first was an Idaho BBQ Association on May 30th 2026, Smoke on the Prairie placing 1st in chicken (shout out to Darwin and Read Beard), but this was our first look at a KCBS competition BBQ alongside some of the best in the business. We’re looking forward to bringing this experience back to Kuna, putting what we learned to work, and showing our school and community what these students can do.
