DRAGON DADS BREAKFAST

Carroll Elementary School has something special going on: Dragon Dads Breakfast. How am I just hearing about this amazing program? Our Southlake community never ends in its greatness! If you’re like me and you haven’t heard, here’s the skinny…

WORDS JENNIFER CASEY

Ms. Wagnon, the Principal of Carroll Elementary, has been fully supportive of the Dragon Dads Breakfast since day one, and word on the street is she makes it all happen! There’s also a special group of dads who organize guest speakers and coordinate food. Six to seven times a year, dads start showing up to the school at around 6:45 a.m. to join their kids for breakfast while listening to an amazing speaker. One of the organizing dads, Greg Peel, reported that on average they have at least 200 attendees – last week it was 300. These numbers show the success of the program!

“What’s cool about it is that dads get to the school early to be with their kids. It’s just 30 minutes! You get to eat with your child and hear an inspiring message. At the end of each breakfast, we always do a raffle for the kids. EVO Entertainment donated gift cards for our last raffle and they went wild. They also sign a Carroll Dragon pennant that is given to each speaker,” Greg said.

The Dragon Dads Breakfast has had speakers like Jason Garrett’s brother (who is a coach as well) and Jason Witten (a

retired Dallas Cowboy). At last month’s breakfast, Mayor Huffman spoke. He shared his role with the city and spoke about parks and recreation, town center, the police, and how they’ve worked to reduce taxes. “He has a way of engaging with the kids and translating his message into one that they can easily understand,” adds Greg.

Mayor Huffman enjoyed being part of the Dragon Dads Breakfast event. “It's really cool to speak to the kids. They are so full of life and fun. There’s always lots of energy and smiles.” Mayor Huffman wants to make sure the kids understand taxes, that this money is not the government’s money but their parent’s money. His favorite question that comes up amongst the kids is if he gets to ride in the MRAP (Southlake’s giant SWAT vehicle). “The program is something I am happy to support. Any time I get to talk to Southlake’s youngest residents, I’ll do it!” And unfortunately, no, he does not get to ride around in the MRAP!

Other speakers have included Brent Jones, who had an 11-year career and played in three Superbowls as a tight end for the San Francisco 49’rs. Brent is a Southlake dad who spoke about what it means to be a great teammate, hard work, and overcoming adversity. He brought his Superbowl rings for the kids to look at and try on.

Every November or December, they have someone from a non-profit speak. Shonda Schaefer, the CEO of Grace Grapevine, spoke to the kids about our responsibility to give back and what their non-profit does with donated money. Shonda’s talk inspired the dads and children so much that they decided to adopt 40 families for the holidays!

Each year, Coach Dodge, the Dragons Football Coach, is the first speaker of the year. He always shares what it means to be a Dragon, the values he expects from his players, and the part they play in the community. Other coaches and school leaders have also spoken in the past. Robert McMillan, European PGA player and PGA golf professional, spoke about growing up poor in Ireland and how learning how to play golf and finding God changed his life. He also shared the story of how his son, at age 25, offered one of his kidneys to a college friend who was dying of kidney failure. Mr. McMillian obviously did a great job raising his son!

The dads that organize this amazing program include Greg Peel, Drew Schlosser, J.W. Butts and Eric Hacker. The kids are so appreciative of their time and effort. American Inventor Charles Kettering once said: “Every father should remember one day that his child will follow his example, not his advice.” If this is true, these kids are set up on a great path!

BBQ has always been a “Texas” thing, but now it’s a Carroll High School thing thanks to Coach Ken Goodman and his wife, Kim, the team sponsor.

WORDS JENNIFER CASEY

We really can’t say it too many times – our students at Carroll ISD have some incredibly amazing and unique opportunities! I just recently learned about a new one: the Carroll Dragon BBQ Team led by team sponsors Ken and Kim Goodman, whose names are quite familiar around our town. Ken is a long-term substitute teacher at Carroll High School and the public address announcer (aka the voice of the Dragons) for Carroll Dragon Football games, Men's and Women's Basketball, Softball, Baseball and Volleyball games, and graduation. His wife, Kim, is the CHS department chair for CTE (Career and Technical Education), which houses the STEM program. Its mission focuses on student-centered learning and providing experiences that promote creative, critical, and analytical thinking.

The BBQ team participates through the school's DECA program which helps to prepare emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, fi nance, hospitality, and management by fostering the development of skills through academic conferences and competitions. Last summer, Ken founded the BBQ team and had a very successful fi rst year of competition. I asked him how the team got

started, and here is what he said: “I always thought it would be neat to have a BBQ team at Carroll. My wife was attending a conference that was offering a session by a chef, called “How to Start a High School BBQ Team”, so I went with her to the conference and attended the session. I got P.J. Giamanco’s (the Carroll HS Principal at that time) approval, found some help and money, and put it on the announcements at school to see who was interested. I got 20 kids who were interested. We started learning how to cook in the parking lot.”

“Carroll currently doesn’t have a culinary program, as most of the schools we compete against do, so it is just amazing how well we’ve done going up against our competitors,” Ken says. Carroll is working on more career pathway opportunities other than straight academics. The district will be starting a new culinary program this next school year. It will take about three years to get up to full speed, but it's a start! Keller, at their center for advanced learning, has a full kitchen and restaurant, so the team is excited to be heading in the right direction.

Current funding is through parents and some amazing relationships. Joe and Amy Torres, of Torres Cooking Concepts and Sucklebusters in Coppell, donate all of the rubs and sauces. They have been mentors to Ken and Kim, teaching them the ins and outs of competition BBQ. The team has also been learning from other guests, local chefs, and pit-masters throughout the year. “I quickly learned that you could make some great ribs and brisket that everyone will love, but you have to trim, season, cook and rest them

all in three to five hours – that’s the tricky part!” laughs Ken.

The team started their training in September of 2021. They first learned how to cook fajitas which taught them chopping skills, and then they were onto ribs, chicken and desserts. Their first competition was on December 3, at Gilmer HS (which has a full culinary program). “We came away very dumbfounded. Here we were, new to the scene, but we just kept winning that day!”

The team won Reserved Champion which qualified them for the National League’s State competition. The State competition was in Round Rock where they were up against 85 teams. They placed 35th overall with individual awards in chicken (10th place) and ribs (15th place). In the Texas League, they competed in Muenster and Mansfield to earn their way to the State competition. In that State event, they were up against 30 plus teams. The “Cookfellas” (all teams have unique names and theirs is a play on “goodfellas”), had three top 10 finishes in Dutch Oven Dessert, Chicken and Burgers.

On May 20, the team cooked breakfast at APE Fitness in Grapevine. Their goal is to eventually have a full menu of options and offer their catering services for events, which will help the kids learn more about running a business.

@carrolldragonbbq

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