A Twirler’s Life: Local baton twirlers earn national awards (Video)

In Northwest Florida the sports of choice for middle school and high school students tend to be football, baseball, cheerleading and soccer, but there is a lesser known sport making headway in the area with a group of local athletes and that is the fascinating world of baton twirling.

A group of 11 local twirlers ages 8 to 18 just returned from a national baton twirling competition called America’s Youth on Parade, held in Notre Dame, Ind. Two of the twirlers, Cassie Roby, 18, of Destin, and Kylee Saltsman, 10, of Niceville, took home top honors with Roby named Intermediate Miss Majorette of America and Saltsman taking Rhythmic Twirl National Champion and Advanced Two-Baton Grand National Champion in her age group.

The Log caught up with the two young athletes to find out just what skills and determination baton twirling entails.

“Our role is to bring movement to the band instead of just having the musical aspect, we add entertainment,” Roby said of the high school majorette team.

She just completed her senior year at Niceville High School will be heading to FSU to join the Majorette Team in the fall. She said in her eyes, the greatest thrill of the sport is exciting the crowd for the football game.

“My favorite aspect about twirl is the performance aspect,” she said. “I like to make the crowd smile and engage them in the tricks that I am doing.”

Saltsman agreed saying, “My favorite part is doing the contests and performing. I like showing what I can do and making the crowd stand up and say, ‘Wow! That’s really interesting.’”  

The two young twirlers said that a common misconception of the baton twirling is that there is little athletic challenge. When asked to detail the amount of training and exercise that goes into becoming a national-level baton twirler, the two offered a large repertoire.

“We practice at least one hour a day, but it’s more like five to six hours,” Roby said with a laugh. “We are twirlers and have to be very graceful, but we are also athletes and have to build up stamina and endurance and have to have a certain physique in our bodies.”

Saltsman added that the two take dance and gymnastics lessons to help hone their performance and flexibility.

“I do a class at Amped Tumbling and Dance Together to practice my leaps and turns,” she said. “I am also going to start doing a ballet class this up-coming year.”

In order to reach the highest level of competition, the two girls also have a professional coach, Karrissa Wimberley, out of Tallahassee who works with them on choreography and further baton skill development. 

To aspiring twirlers, the pair offered encouragement and said passion is the key to achieving greatness.

“If they want to twirl, they definitely need to try it,” said Roby. “Also I want to let them know that they can do it.”

“You have to really want to do it,” added Saltsman. “If you start it’s really hard to stop!”

To find out more about local baton twirling groups visit www.allstartwirlersflorida.com or www.twinklingtwirlers.com.  

To see a video of twirling CLICK HERE