BBQ and Grillers alike come down for the fourteenth annual ND BBQ Championship

FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) — It’s smoking hot! Scheels Home and Hardware has once again brought over forty teams from across the country and Canada to give a taste of sweet and savory barbecue. 12

“We are currently at the fourteenth annual North Dakota barbecue championship. And so there’s two different portions happening right now. We have teams from all over the U.S. and Canada that are competing for the title of Grand Champion, and they have a chance to win up to $1,500 in prizes,” said Ashley Wait, Marketing Leader at Scheels Home and Hardware

Teams range from first-time competitors to seasoned barbecue grillers. One of the many teams competing is Wild Willy’s. Bill Butterfield, the founder of Wild Willy’s, started his first competition four years ago in Taylor, North Dakota. And since then, he has continued down his journey of grilling.

“I just started cooking myself. Started making all these seasonings, and then it just kind of went from there at people’s request. More than anything, friends, hey man, you should do something with this, so we tried a little bit and just kind of been growing ever since,” said Bill Butterfield, Owner and Founder of Wild Willy’s.

While the competition goes on, grillers will be giving live demonstrations and tips they have learned over time.

“Anybody could do this, anybody. You don’t have to have the fancy stuff, you don’t have to have the fancy seasonings, you don’t have to have this. You just get in it, start going, and start tasting and testing, kind of like what we did. Oh, that’s not very good. Oh, this is pretty good. And really it’s for everybody,” said Butterfield.

The championship will be raising funds this year for the Northern Cass Cross Country Team to go to a meet in Sioux Falls.