Somerset's Waypoint BBQ ready to smoke the competition at Jack Daniels World Championship

SOMERSET — They came, they cooked, they conquered at a state level.

Now the SouthCoast trio known as Waypoint BBQ are taking their talents for slow-cooked Southern fare to a world stage.

Come fall, the team of longtime pals with a passion for barbecue — pitmaster Jeff Costa of Somerset, Jared Furness of Fairhaven, and Bruce Coray of Somerset — will be headed to Tennessee to test their chops at the Jack Daniel’s World Championship Invitational, one of the most prestigious events in the barbecue community.

According to Costa, the secret to Waypoint's success isn’t just in the sauce, it's their "love for the sport" of competitive barbecuing, which they've been plugging away at for nearly three years.

But none of them started as seasoned pros. The trio had experience smoking meat for a while, and decided to throw their hats in the ring for their first competition in 2022.

"We started to see if we could do it, and the first one we crushed," said Costa, whose Waypoint team won the Reserve Grand Champion out of 34 teams at Hogs for Heroes, a veterans event in Jamestown, Rhode Island, in their debut.

After that, Costa ordered a 250-gallon custom kettle smoker out of Georgia — which can cook roughly 440 pounds of meat at a time — and since then they've been sizzling at contests all over New England.

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Waypoint's journey to The Jack barbecue competition

Competition at these events is fierce, Costa notes, as they are pitted against teams from across the country, including those from Texas and other Southern states famous for BBQ.

But they should be warned never to underestimate New Englanders when it comes to barbecue.

"They called us creampuffs one year ... but we sent them packing multiple times and I guess we'll just keep doing it," Costa said.

That includes this past July, when Waypoint took top prize of Grand Champion at the annual Rhode Island State BBQ Championship held in Warwick, Rhode Island, which earned them a golden ticket to their next stop — the esteemed Jack Daniel’s Invitational.

The Ocean State contest — where Waypoint bested 20 competitors, including world champions — is part of the Kansas City Barbeque Society national circuit and an automatic qualifier for The Jack.

"I don't know if we were good or we were lucky, but we won," Costa joked.

At each barbecue competition, teams are judged on four primary meats — chicken, ribs, pork and brisket. Waypoint were top five in all four categories at the Rhode Island qualifier.

According to Costa, making The Jack one day was a bucket list item for all three teammates.

And they are coming in hot to the renowned invite-only event, which draws more than 40,000 folks each year to watch 75 teams from around the globe vie for the coveted title of The Jack Grand Champion.

"I'm hopeful," said Costa. "We put a lot of work and a lot of pride into our product, we have a really good team. But we're going against the world champions, the best in the world."

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A tight-knit 'barbecue family'

Gearing up to the two-day October event, Costa said they'll likely do five or six practice runs. He gives props to their wives and family, who support them on their barbecue journey as helpers.

The family atmosphere is one of the things Costa enjoys most about competitive barbecue, besides winning.

"They call it the barbecue family out there," he said. "You're always gonna meet different people from all over the country, people from all aspects of life. ... It's fun, it's a great time."

And no one person can take credit for Waypoint's successes. Everyone has a part to play.

"Everybody works together. It's a big cohesive unit. You gotta mesh to make it work," said Costa, whose team participated in last year's Somerset Sizzle.

In addition to competitions, the Waypoint BBQ team has also rolled their talents into a business, catering events small and large, such as the most recent Army Navy Game.

When is The Jack barbecue competition?

The year, thousands descend on Wiseman Park in Lynchburg, Tennessee, on Oct. 11-12 to wield their grilling and smoking expertise at The Jack.

Waypoint will be representing Rhode Island, and another local team, Smokin' Hoggz BBQ out of Middleboro who are no strangers to the Jack, will be representing Massachusetts.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Somerset's Waypoint BBQ ready to smoke the competition at Jack Daniels World Championship