It’s thrown into the air, lit on fire and spun around and around. In its uniform of silver and red, it is visible from the highest seats of Carter-Finley Stadium — the baton.
And it’s always in good hands. As the team kicks, turns and backbends its way through technically challenging and precise combinations of dance and gymnastic skills, it rarely touches the ground.
“They don’t usually drop their batons during performances, but if it happens you just make it work,” Bethany Schreiner, assistant coach and president, said. “They find some interesting way to pick it up and keep going.”
Selena Lane, a senior in biological sciences, doesn’t focus on what could go wrong. She said the thrill of the game drew her to the majorette team.
“The best part is being at the games. Everything else is just an added bonus,” Lane said. “I’ve stopped competing, so when you get out there and your adrenaline is pumping and the crowd gets into it, there’s nothing like it.”
Along with Lane, Laurie Dinwiddie, a senior in communication, Sammie Price, a sophomore in biology at Meredith College and Courtney Patterson, a junior in performance and choreography at Meredith make up the twirling team.
All of the women have twirled since they were young, first picking up a baton when they were 5 or 6 years old. Whether it was in a dance studio class or on the festive streets of a local parade, each remembers exactly where she was when she first took up twirling.
“It’s a really unique thing. When people find out I twirl, they’re always interested in it. They’ll always ask questions about it,” Patterson said.
Although Price agreed the rarity in which baton twirling is seen allows it to maintain its unique reputation, it can be difficult to convince some people of its importance.
“Sometimes it’s hard to get support because people think it’s a sport that’s dying out,” she said.
Under Schreiner, a senior in agriculture business management, and head coach Joanna Maguire’s direction, the team combats that idea by competing nationally and raising the majority of its money, in addition to performing.
The team is no stranger to competing — or winning. They said they were the 2006 National Coalition for the Advancement of Baton Twirling Intercollegiate Grand Champions. This title marked the third year in a row the team had won. This year’s competition will be held at Purdue University, and the majorettes said they are ready.
“We’re going back to defend our title,” Patterson said.
In addition to serving as a place to show off the team’s skills and talent, the competitions the team attends annually — including Twirl Mania and the competition held by the Drum Majorettes of America Ñ- are also grounds for the recruitment of future Wolfpack majorettes.
“These competitions serve as a great recruiting tool. If people attend the competition and see what we can do and how well we work as a team, it gets them interested,” Lane said.
For potential new majorettes, the team holds a tryout in May on campus. In addition to having clean individual routines involving two to three batons, team members must also exhibit a good attitude and be a motivated team member and student.
“It’s all about accomplishing goals you set for yourself,” Dinwiddie said. “We’ll have a trick that we’re working on and it really makes you feel good to practice and get it right.”
The team practices three days a week, Schreiner said. They increase practice hours during game weeks to ensure the “wind-up” and “taffy pull” tricks the team performs during game routines are ready.
For their performances, Dinwiddie and Lane coach the team on the art of throwing the fire baton. It is a popular addition to halftime show, according to them.
“We haven’t had any close calls, yet,” said Dinwiddie. “But it singes your arm hair because it’s so hot — we don’t have any arm hair during the fall semester.”
A usual game-time staple — the all-important hairspray bottle — is also avoided when the fire batons are used, according to Lane.
“No hairspray at those games — we only want the batons to light on fire,” Lane said, laughing.
Despite the sparkle of their uniforms, the spectacle of the fire batons and the flash of their routines, the majorettes can’t forget the little girl in each of them who discovered twirling for the first time.
“It’s the best when the little girls come up to you for autographs at the games and the clinics we host,” Price said.