(WITH VIDEO) Freshman Becomes Hartland's First Twirler in Nearly 20 years

It’s a rare skill to find — the ability to catch a twirling thin stick out of thin air while gracefully falling into the splits in front of a large crowd — but baton twirlers do it with a smile and seem to make it look easy.

And after almost two decades, this crowd-pleasing act has finally come back to the Hartland High School halftime show as freshman majorette Phoebe Carr takes the field alongside the color guard and marching band.

“I think it just adds another dimension,” said Kristen Acton, coach of the Hartland color guard. “It’s nice to have some layers in our routine, so it just adds that extra visual layer.”

Although Phoebe has twirled for six years, this will be her first year performing at this Friday’s homecoming game and the 14-year-old says that she is excited.

“It’s actually amazing,” Phoebe said. “It sounds like it will be a lot of fun.”

Phoebe began learning the baton after watching a performance by the Brighton-based twirling group, Limited Edition, which came to her elementary school. She later joined the competitive team and has since won several state and national titles in the World Twirling Association.

“I saw how amazing it was,” Phoebe said about her decision to try twirling. “And that it was a sport that not a lot of people in the school do.”

With the homecoming performance on Friday night, the Hartland color guard team — that includes four returning and six new members — will be using the halftime show as another way to prepare for its upcoming competition.

The squad will be travelling to Easter Michigan University this Saturday to once again defend its title. Phoebe’s teammates are excited for the new level of competition that her baton twirling skills will bring and are hoping to win top honors for the fourth year in a row.

“I think the judges will pay attention more to us," said junior Dana Saunders. “Because it’s really unique. Not many of the teams at competition really have baton twirlers. … It’ll give us a little pizazz.”

Having a baton twirler on the color guard squad is new for Acton, but she says that the ideas and talent that Phoebe brings to the routines has made the meshing of the two styles easy.

“Especially for this it was helpful,” Acton said referring to their competition routine. “I was able to say to her, OK, here’s the music, these are the counts you have, show me something that we’ll put here.”

Phoebe’s skills, however, are not limited to just the baton. With her ability to also do flags during their routine, Acton says that her versitility is impressive.

“I know it’s a whole separate skill set,” Acton said of baton twirling verses flags. “She’s a very smart girl. She works really hard and we’re very happy to have her.”

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