| 02/21/2005 |
| Twirling not just for little girls |
| Tracy Meadowcroft , tmeadowcroft@pottsmerc.com |
Morgan Zimmerman can’t help but smile when she’s twirling.
And the crowds that have seen her perform during halftime at several basketball games can’t help but smile either -- and cheer --after her brief but energetic routines.The 17-year-old Spring-Ford High School senior began twirling when she was 5 and competing when she was 7. Twelve years later, Morgan has amassed 200 trophies and awards for her twirling skills, many tucked away in closets and corners of her home because there just isn’t enough space.
Now Morgan is teaching up-and-coming athletes the tricks -- or twirls -- of the trade while making plans to attend college, hopefully Penn State University. There, she could work with the Touch of Blue twirling team or even become the team’s featured performer, known as the Blue Sapphire. Morgan began twirling thanks to her mother, Rhonda. Rhonda Zimmerman twirled with the marching band when she was a student at Pine Grove High School in Schuylkill County and decided to get her daughter involved with the sport at a young age. "I just knew I liked it, so I thought Morgan might give it a try," Zimmerman said. "She took a liking to it, and I think it works with her goal-oriented personality. "We’re very proud of her," she added. When she was 10, Morgan began setting goals for herself as she worked her way from the lowest-level twirling competitions to the advanced, and highest, level at which she could compete. A fellow twirler, Jenna Moser, now a 19-year-old student at Lebanon Valley College, also became a role model for Morgan. "When she was 8 and I was 6, I looked up to her," Morgan said. "She always worked hard, was dedicated, took practice seriously and she always had fun." Morgan incorporated those ideals into her work with twirling. At one time, Morgan was also involved with dancing and figure skating. But she eventually decided to dedicate more time to twirling. "It wasn’t even a question," Morgan said. She’s going to give track at Spring-Ford a try this spring, though, and is a member of the high school cheerleading squad. Two of her fellow cheerleaders also twirl, Morgan said. When not taking private lessons, as a youngster Morgan spent much of her free time practicing her twirling skills and routines in the driveway of the family home, which she shares with her parents and 13-year-old brother, Erik. "I practiced whenever I could," Morgan said. Through her lessons she learned basic twirling skills such as "fingers," twirling the baton on the fingers; "rolls," rolling the baton over the arm, back, neck, elbow or other area; and "vertical series," vertical and horizontal baton tosses, Morgan explained. She then moved on to working on the choreography for her competitions. Morgan has even choreographed some of her own routines as well as those of other performers. The routines are usually under three minutes and set to standard marching music, she explained. Show twirls, however, are choreographed routines set to popular songs and are what Morgan performs during halftime. Twirlers can compete both alone and with groups, with one to three batons or in "Super X" or "strut," which is a routine designed to show flexibility and balance, Morgan explained. Competitions also involve modeling and interviews, she said. Twirlers must fill their routines with skills that show difficulty, technique and variety, with points deducted each time a batons falls or is not in motion, Morgan said. Many twirlers still go on to win, despite penalties, she said. Morgan has attended local, regional, state and national meets, traveling to Florida, Ohio and Notre Dame University in Indiana, among other places. She has captured numerous titles in competitions sponsored by organizations such as the National Baton Twirling Association and Twirling Unlimited. But performing for a crowd of her peers and parents made her nervous, Morgan admitted even though she volunteered to do it as something different for halftime. "My hands get clammy and I get nervous," she said. "But people say they’ve never seen anything like it," she added, noting some people think twirling is just for little girls.
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