Knoxville team one of six competing

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Knoxville team one of six competing in Papa John's global pizza games for $20K

Alaiah Miller is slapping a pile of dough into a pizza crust at the Papa John's Pizza off Cumberland Avenue. She's stretching the edges of the dough with her knuckles and spinning it until finally it takes shape.To get more papa john's hawaiian pizza, you can visit shine news official website.

She then passes it down the production line to teammate Sydney Hamlet, who sauces the crust and starts to place pepperoni slices. Chris Coffey is keeping Miller apprised to how much time has elapsed — she has five more crusts to make before their work is graded.

For the next few minutes, Coffey isn't their boss — he's their coach. And this isn't just work — it's practice. Miller and Hamlet are preparing to compete in the Papa John's Global Pizza Games.

They're one of six teams that will participate in the Aug. 28 international competition, in which the best quality pizzas made in the least amount of time will net the winning team $20,000. Hamlet, 27, hails from Maryville. Last year she and former teammate Ashley Smutnik took home first place and the cash prize.

“Sydney was always really fast," Coffey said. "She started 11 years ago at the Maryville store, which is like our busiest one, so she was one of the girls that was just over there on a Friday night making pizzas faster than anybody else.”

Miller, a 25-year-old Wisconsin native, is her new teammate. She's worked for Papa John's for five years. Communication is a key strength between the co-workers, Coffey said. Miller is calm under pressure and takes feedback well from Hamlet.

“We just get along," Miller said. "We don’t try to compete with each other. We try to help one another.”Dubbed Team Home Run, they've advanced through the district, regional and national competitions this year.

The team represents Home Run Inc., a group of 11 stores in the area owned by David Pearce of Knoxville. Coffey has served as operational vice president for Home Run Inc. since 1993 and has coached the team for four years.

There are more than 5,200 Papa John's locations in 46 countries. The competition will take place at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colorado, during the annual Papa John's Operators Conference.

Each team must make six pizzas as quickly as possible: two pepperoni, two sausage and two pepperoni-sausage. On Team Home Run, Miller makes the crusts, and Hamlet finishes the pizzas from there.Teams will be judged on quality and speed. Mistakes will result in time added to a team's score, and well-executed pizzas will deduct time from a team's score. The team with the lowest final time wins.