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Sarah Weaver takes home first place at state competition

Coffee County sophomore Sarah Weaver placed first in the state during the GrillMaster Competition in Knoxville Oct. 7 with her lamb burger recipe.

Weaver, who is president of the 4-H Honors Club, said she has been competing in the GrillMaster Competition since she was in seventh grade. She said it was through 4-H that she developed an interest in grilling.

“I first started the competition in 4-H and the first time I did it, I have always enjoyed it since,” she said.

Weaver said she developed her lamb burger recipe through both research and taste tests with her family, who raise sheep and pigs at their Hillsboro farm.

“It was a mixture of recipes I found online and just experimenting on what tastes good and what works best,” he said. “We tried a lot of lamb.”

Neil Sloan, extension agent 4-H Youth Development, said during the GrillMaster Competition, both teams of four and individuals compete for top honors.

“Each person on the team cooks a dish and it is related to a different meat that they pick,” Sloan said. “There are four choices, you can either do a lab dish, beef dish, pork dish or poultry dish.”

Sloan said Weaver first competed at the regional tournament in the regional tournament in September, where Weaver placed first for her lamb burger recipe, which allowed her to move on to the state competition in Knoxville.

Weaver said contestants are allotted two hours to cook their entry once the judges give the official order to light their charcoal.

“For a little bit I was afraid that my fire hadn’t started because it was a very windy day and we do this outside and the wind kept pushing my fire out and I was afraid I was going to have to restart.

Weaver said she was not expecting to hear her name called a first place winner.

“It was very shocking because this is my first year going to the state competition, and to win state my first year was very surprising,” she said. “It took me a second to just register what happened.”

Sloan said that while some people might associate 4-H with competitions more closely associated with the farm and agriculture, there are many options available to students from all different backgrounds.

“Whether you come from a farm or you have never been on a farm in your life, you might think you are a city kid, come out, try 4-H and I guarantee we can find something for you that to enjoy and you can be successful with within our program.”

Weaver said that while she plans to continue to compete in the GrillMaster Competition during her remaining two years of high school, she believes she will switch things up a bit for next year’s competition.

“Next year I am probably going to try a different kind of meat and go either to pork or beef and work around with that,” she said.