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(COVINGTON, La) — “What happens at Barbecue Club stays in our intestines” is the official motto of the new St. Paul’s School Barbecue Club.

With a motto such as that, St. Paul’s is in for a grilled and meat-filled treat. Everyone loves barbecue, right? Well, besides vegetarians, of course.

“Last year, in Mr. (Andrew) Moran’s Music Appreciation class, we were thinking of a really obscure club, almost as a joke, we could start,” Chief Risk Officer and co-founder Junior Nick Ashton said. “We said, ‘Hey, let’s start a barbecue club.’ So, that day I started sketching a logo and thinking of a pledge for us.”

The new Barbecue Club is no joke, however. They take their meat seriously. In fact, their pledge is, “If it fits on the grill, we will grill it. If it doesn’t fit, we will cut it up into smaller pieces and grill those.”

It is not common to find a barbecue club on a school campus; in fact, it is (medium) rare. To the club members’ knowledge, if there was a barbecue club on SPS campus before this one, it must not have been well-done, because there is no documentation of it.

“I (co-founded) Barbecue Club (in part) to hopefully leave my mark at St. Paul’s,” Ashton said. “I hope I can come back to SPS and see people still grilling.”

The club’s faculty moderator, known as the club’s Exalted Grill Master, is Band Director Andrew Moran. When not teaching the band a new song to play while fellas throw around a pigskin, he loves to cook and eat real pigskin.

“The reason I agreed to moderate this club is because I love to grill and BBQ,” Moran said. “Second, I wanted to get a chance to teach about how to cook this way. Also, I wanted to teach about cooking from scratch and using good products, and how easy it is to cook this way. I think it is important that the guys in the club really understand this type of cooking.”

The Barbeque Club has plans to meet before home football games, with meetings to be held in front of the band room. Club members all have wacky titles that may or may not correspond with their official roles in the club. For example, Dustin Simoneaux is the Executive Spice Facilitator. His father, SPS alumnus Pierre Simoneaux, acts as the parent moderator and has been officially named the Sultan of Smoke. Not to be forgotten are Director of Human Resources Rev. August Latapie, Chief Diversity Officer Hayden Moran, Chief Bun Secretary Jeremy Dobbs, and Guest of Honor Bradley Anzalone.

“I’m really excited about this club,” Ashton said. “I think it will be a great addition to all the many clubs we already have on campus.”

Since the SPS Barbeque Club is taking no meat for granted, cows beware! After all, their code of honor is “No meat left behind.”

(All photos by Nick Ashton)