What do people think of when they hear about baton twirling in the sporting world?
Maybe it’s a parade, which makes sense: There always seems to be a group of baton twirlers marching in any given Plant City-area parade. Or, maybe it’s football, where the twirlers provide the halftime entertainment.
But, do people know that all of this can lead to a huge national competition? If not, then it’s time to become familiar with Plant City’s own Patriots Twirling Corps.
An outfit that spreads around the Tampa Bay area, the Patriots, formerly known as Patrick’s Patriots, is a group of 75 girls affiliated with longtime twirling coach Barbara Patrick and her daughter, Lynann Hudson. Although the team holds workouts in Lakeland, Brandon and Tampa, the lure of Plant City was strong enough for Patrick to make her “home base” at Eastside Baptist Church.
“Plant City’s been good to us,” Patrick says.
And, one can find the girls working hard at Eastside over the next few weeks as 10 of its members get ready to twirl on the biggest stage in the country — America’s Youth on Parade, held at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., There, the girls will be tested in virtually every way.
PUTTING IN WORK
Cheerleading might be the closest comparison one can make to baton twirling as a competition, but it’s not entirely accurate. Twirling is much more focused on the individual’s performance, the ability to move gracefully and pull off baton tricks simultaneously. Walk into the church’s gymnasium on a practice night, and there will be girls working on some impressive moves — twirling and juggling two or three batons at once, rolling on the ground while keeping one baton airborne, or even throwing while spinning 360 degrees as many times as possible. These Patriots put in some hard work.
“It’s such a unique sport,” Morgan Boykin says. “Cheerleading and basketball, you know, that’s so common. Baton twirling is an older generation’s sport — people our age don’t do it. People our age are like, ‘Oh, you’re a baton twirler? People in the older generation are like, ‘Oh, I used to do majorettes in high school!’ Our generation’s not really exposed to it.”
Boykin, a sophomore at the University of South Florida, will compete in the Advanced division. She’s one of the girls most likely to be throwing from the ground, exhausted and drenched in sweat by the end of practice, and looks to face some of the stiffest competition in the college division. All of that hard work is necessary to place.
The travel schedules can be grueling, too. For Patrick and Hudson, coaching these 75 girls means traveling to a different city every day, one or two rec centers at a time. With twirlers hailing from as far out as Tampa, Lakeland and Fishhawk, it’s easier for the mother-daughter team to go to the girls instead of corralling everyone in one place on one night.
CATCHING THE BUG
Patrick’s constant traveling means she’s come a long way since she first began coaching. About 55 years ago, under a big oak tree at Courier Field, she began teaching young girls how to twirl on Saturday mornings. She was eventually able to move her operation into rec centers, after the Recreation and Parks Department got on board. It wasn’t long before she was able to get her girls some national recognition, either.
“We’ve had twirling teams and national champions since before (Hudson) was born,” Patrick says.
Hudson, now in her forties, got her start in twirling when she was 3 years old. In addition to this coaching job, she’s also the coordinator for the University of Central Florida’s twirl team, which has her driving out to her alma mater during football season to coach.
Passing on their love of twirling to other girls hasn’t been tough. Boykin caught on in very much the same way that Hudson did — copying older girls, sticking with it throughout her life, and continuing in college. Brittany Nesbitt, a Plant City High School senior and advanced competitor, is one of the girls who started out on a whim at a rec center.
“Miss Barbara actually passed out papers to my school an end-of-the-day packet, and it was for recreational classes,” Nesbitt says. “I started from there and just fell in love with it.”
These two, like most of their teammates, are veterans of America’s Youth on Parade. This year, though, they’re gunning for first place.
GRUELING COMPETITION
“It’s a long, grueling week,” Patrick says. “Everybody thinks, ‘Oh, you’re gone!’ It’s not much of a vacation, because the contests start at 8 o’clock in the morning and, sometimes, last until 10, 11 at night.”
And, at 7 a.m., the girls are back in the gym, working on routines. There are roughly 4,000 twirlers from all over the country — and sometimes, Canada — to compete against, so every routine in every event has to be perfect.
There are several events throughout the week. Individual events, which make up the bulk of the competition, include solo routines, struts (similar to a march, with no throwing), multiple-baton routines, flag routines, and a show twirl, which allows each twirler to pick her own music and use props. Group events are the one-baton dance twirl, and a halftime routine like what one would see at a football game.
There are also pageant events, in which Boykin and Nesbitt will compete. These are three-pronged events, combining the solo, the strut, and a modeling event that includes a brief interview with the judges.
Boykin will represent Florida on her collegiate level, and Nesbitt will represent the Southeast region of the country in hers. Both have prior experience in the pageant, but Nesbitt got started by surprise.
“My very first year that I went to Nationals, I had placed third in a pageant,” she says. “But, I was on the way up there and got an unexpected call saying that the girl who won was going to a wedding, and the girl who won second won a regional contest, and I would have to represent Florida. This was three years ago. I was asleep; I was like, ‘What are you talking about? I’m trying to sleep!’”
This year, she’s more than ready to go, as are the rest of her teammates. Her coaches are convinced that this year’s team has the skill to go far in 2014.
“They have the ability to win, if they do the job that they’re capable of doing,” Patrick says.
THE GIRLS
From July 22-26, the Patriots Twirling Corps will compete in America’s Youth on Parade, the biggest baton twirling competition in the country. The girls are:
Natalie Bolet
Amber Boykin
Morgan Boykin
Sarah Cameron
Montia Heatherly
Kaylee Hudson
Raelyn Hudson
Brittany Nesbitt
Jackie Swartz
Madison Weiss
Coaches: Barbara Patrick, Lynann Hudson