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Twirlers Aim For The Gold

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By D'ANN LAWRENCE WHITE

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 6, 2008

BRANDON - Gold medals won't only be earned at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

Members of the Let's Twirl baton-twirling troupe from Brandon expect to bring home their share of gold from the 2008 National Amateur Athletic Union Junior Olympic Games in Detroit.

Coached by June Bryan, a former Olympic twirler and state champion, 46 twirlers headed to Detroit on July 26 after being selected to perform in the opening ceremonies. In addition to coaching Let's Twirl teams at the FishHawk Ranch Osprey Club, Nativity Catholic School and the Pole Barn at Winthrop Town Centre, Bryan is chairwoman of the baton twirling sports committee of the National AAU.

After its heyday in the 1950s and '60s, baton twirling was replaced in popularity by joining flag squads and dance and drill teams at high schools in recent years. However, Bryan and partner Dawn Gundlach have helped keep the art alive in the Brandon area for 13 years, teaching girls age 4 to 18 the skill of balancing and twirling the baton on their fingertips, then throwing the baton into the air and catching it with precision timing.

A year ago, 12-year-old Joseph Baker, Byran's one and only male twirler, joined the competition team. Bryan is hoping other boys will follow.

"We started out with a few girls practicing in the parking lot at Nativity, and now we have three sites and offer lessons four days a week," Bryan said. There are about 150 children enrolled in Let's Twirl baton classes.

Jennifer Reynolds, a member of the Gatorettes twirling team at the University of Florida and the 2007 recipient of the AAU Joel Ferrell Outstanding Performance Memorial Award, is a former Let's Twirl member, Bryan noted.

All the members of the twirling team at Tampa Catholic High School are former Let's Twirl members, and Riverview High School has just started a twirling team as well - the only public high school in the area to have a twirling team.

"I think it will catch on and spread to other high schools," Bryan said. "It's a great activity, and there are a lot of scholarships available out there. I'm going to keep pushing it."

Being a member of Let's Twirl has benefits of its own. This year, the troupe won the Florida AAU State Championship for the fifth straight year, qualifying it for nationals, and Bryan is hoping for a fifth straight national win.

"Each year they've brought home quite a few gold medals among them," Bryan said. "I think we have a few hundred medals now, too many to count."

For information on fall classes, contact Bryan at (813) 653-2199 or Sbryan01@tampa bay.rr.com.

Reporter D'Ann Lawrence White can be reached at (813) 657-4524 or dlwhite@tampatrib.com.

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