Southern Wayne High School Boosters crown pig champ
By Steve Herring
Published in News on October 8, 2012 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/BOBBY WILLIAMS
Grant Kornegay, 14, chops barbecue for his father, James Kornegay, Saturday morning at the Southern Wayne High School athletic booster Pigskin Cook-Off.
DUDLEY -- For Kim Brock of Calypso, the trophy her family received for Best in Show at this past weekend's Pigskin Cook-Off wasn't about winning the $200 prize. It was about remembering her sister by giving back to her community.
Mrs. Brock's Forever Karen team, sponsored by Tri-County Electric Membership Corp., was among the 15 that competed in the Pigskin Cook-Off sponsored by the Southern Wayne High School Athletic Boosters Cub.
In July 1991, Mrs. Brock and her younger sister Karen, 16, were in the yard at their Dudley home.
"It was a beautiful day," Mrs. Brock said. "There were no clouds in the sky. All of a sudden, one small cloud came above and lightning struck. It struck above a tree and went down and struck her and killed her instantly."
Winning Saturday would have been perfect -- if Karen could have been there, too, Mrs. Brock said.
"I am speechless. If she could just be here to see, and to get the trophy herself. It is a wonderful feeling, being my first time I have ever put anything together and to be able to win."
The team included Mrs. Brock, her husband, Nickie, her father, Jack, who works at Tri-County, and her brother, Kevin.
"I helped her get started and then I went home and got me a nap," her father said.
The Pur-T-BBQ by JD team, sponsored by the Mt. Olive Pickle Co., won Best in Taste and Best Overall and $200 and $400 prizes respectively.
The teams gathered at the school Friday night to begin cooking with the judging starting at dawn on Saturday.
An army of volunteers including parents and members of the school's athletic teams worked throughout the day at the fundraiser, where approximately 1,500 plates were sold, said Lynn Williams of the Boosters Club.
The final tally was not available prior to press time Monday, but it is expected to be approximately $10,000.
All proceeds will go to the school's athletic programs.
"We had so many student athletes, and they made it so much fun," she said. "We had a good outpouring of parents and students. We were able to get donations to cover the vast majority of our expenses -- the pigs, the ingredients.
"It was a very impressive show of support for Southern Wayne. We will definitely be back next year, and we are taking notes trying to figure out how we can do better and organize better."
The club has some big goals, she said.
"One of them is we want to establish a soccer field," Mrs. Williams said. "We have a lot of smaller goals. We are replacing team uniforms and just expenses for the athletic department that we can cover."
Pur-T- BBQ team members said they were all "strong-headed," but had worked out the sauce. They have 192 years of barbecuing experience between them, but that it was the first time they have all competed together as a team.
Charles Mozingo of Mount Olive, team leader, Johnny Melvin of Mount Olive, and Thomas Sampson of Dudley, are all retired from Mt. Olive Pickle Co. Danny Kennedy of Goldsboro still works at the pickle company.
"Underground was the first one I ever cooked by myself," Mozingo said.
Melvin and Sampson said that is how they started, too.
"Dug a hole in the ground and put a grate across it," Mozingo said. "Put the pig on it and laid a piece of tin on it. You left room to slide the coals under him, and you put coals on top of the tin. You cooked him from the top and then bottom."
Sampson even recalled using tobacco sticks to help make the grate for the pig to cook on.
Melvin said he learned from his father, the late Emmett Melvin, who barbecued pigs as a profession.
Melvin said his father passed his secrets to him, and that he will pass them on to his daughter.
Unlike the other teams, they used a mixture of wood, charcoal and gas.
"We were it doing for taste and moistness and a beautiful color," Mozingo said.
"The wood gives us the flavor," Melvin said. "The charcoal is keeping the flavor there after the wood is gone and the gas finishes cooking it and then we polish it."
Polishing means swabbing the pig down with butter or margarine, they said.
The event brought back memories for boosters club member Tony Jones of Mount Olive who started as a sophomore at Southern Wayne in 1985 -- the first year of the original Pigskin Cook-Off.
"I have seen the very first trophy that was awarded to the first Pigskin Cook-Off winner which was Mr. Wyatt Roberts," he said. "Ironically, me getting on the Boosters Club and my son, Carter, starting here at Southern Wayne being a freshman, we have revitalized the Pigskin Cook-Off."