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Twirlers seek status of college athletes
A group of determined collegiate baton twirlers will hold its first-ever invitational at Cumberland University in Lebanon on Saturday, with minds set on getting twirling declared an officially sanctioned NCAA sport. Go ahead. Chuckle. Our sports editor did. Insert Miss America pageant joke here. No, really, go ahead. They're used to it. They've heard every baton-twirling joke you can think of, and then some. And still they are determined to get the National Collegiate Athletic Association to give them the nod of approval. They know it won't be easy. ''Five years might be optimistic,'' said Kay Colen, director of the Intercollegiate Baton Twirling Invitational and a founder of the National Coalition for the Advancement of Baton Twirling.
Baton twirlers don't get much respect. ''Too many don't, and it's a shame,'' she said. ''The training and what these girls go through is the same as ice skating and gymnastics. These girls start when they are 4 or 5 years old. When you say baton twirlers, people think of what you see in a parade. But not even in the Miss America Pageant can they do the difficulty of what they are doing in competition.'' Colen, a twirler herself, is now a coach in Potomac, Md. This is the first year they've tried an event such as this. ''It's starting slow,'' she said. There will be 25 young women and one very brave young man demonstrating their ability to twirl, toss and catch numerous batons. Their goal: get 20 colleges in the United States to have official baton-twirling clubs. That's the first requirement of getting the NCAA to consider them. Right now, they have just two schools with clubs. NCAA spokesman Kent Barrett chose his words carefully when asked if baton twirling has a chance to become a real sport. ''How difficult? That's really tough to answer,'' Barrett said. ''The NCAA always supports athletic opportunities for student athletes, particularly for women. We would encourage a lot of different attempts to do this, including this one. Regardless of whether it ever becomes an NCAA-sanctioned sport or emerging sport, we would encourage athletes to participate.'' ''Emerging sports'' is a term created by the NCAA after Title IX legislation was passed. In a nutshell, it called for new ways to create gender equity in college athletics. It's the first step toward full-blown acceptance. The invitational is a first step toward getting named an emerging sport. This Saturday, ''each girl has to go to a two-hour seminar to understand what they have to do back at their campus to get the NCAA to look at us,'' Colen said. After the seminar, the twirlers will compete for plaques, using one or two batons, in pairs and in dance teams. Among the colleges with twirlers that will be here: Florida State University and the University of Maryland. Colen said the top seven twirlers in the nation will attend. ''We are competitive,'' Colen said. ''Baton twirling is a sport. We have world championships. We're just as much a sport as ice skating.'' Baton twirling: It's not just for halftime anymore. Getting there The Intercollegiate Baton Twirling Invitational, sponsored by the Wilson County Sports Council, is free and open to spectators. Twirlers will compete in eight separate events beginning at 11 a.m. The event is this Saturday, Jan. 29, in the gymnasium at Cumberland University, 1 Cumberland Square, Lebanon. |
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