Kaitlyn Turnbull is the only baton twirler for the CU Buffaloes. Sept. 9, 2017 (Phil McKenzie/CU Independent)
Pay attention to the CU marching band during halftime at the next home football game, and you might notice a lone figure twirling on the field. That’s Kaitlyn Turnbull, CU’s baton twirler.
Turnbull, a sophomore, has been twirling for 14 years. She twirled competitively for 10 years, and now performs with CU’s marching band while she studies psychology.
“No one really knows what it is,” Turnbull said about twirling. “They think of color guard and all that stuff, but we’re completely different. We’re our own type of sport.”
Baton twirlers only use a baton; they don’t use flags, rifles or sabers.
Turnbull said she originally started out as a dancer, and was introduced to twirling at the age of 5. Her studio had a baton class going on that entranced her. She said she would borrow a baton from the studio store and follow the class through the window.
“One day, the instructor came outside and said ‘I’ve been noticing you these past few days, come into the class for a free trial.’ And after that, it’s basically history,” Turnbull said.
Turnbull joined the baton twirling class, where she learned the basic movements and techniques of twirling. She decided to stick with twirling because it differentiated her from the other dancers. At the age of 9 she started competing, and she has continued for 10 years.
“When I was really young, all I really did was parades and little shows here and there, very theatrical twirling,” Turnbull said. “For competitive, it’s lots of tricks, hard movements, really nice contact and rolls. You want to show the judge that you’re the best out of your category.”
Turnbull also twirls as a pair with her older sister, who twirls for the University of Arizona. In high school, the sisters were the featured twirlers for their school. They were also a part of the competitive marching band.
Turnbull said she picked her college based on which schools would allow her to twirl, leading her to CU Boulder. Though Turnbull twirls for CU, her competitive coach lives in Los Angeles.
“I have no coach or teammates here, so it’s all on me,” Turnbull said.
On top of all her schoolwork, Turnbull practiced twirling for a rigorous 18 to 22 hours a week while she was competing.
“In a week I tried to do two hours every day, and then about four to six hours on the weekend, each day.” Turnbull said. “Our job as baton twirlers is to make everything we do look easy.”
However, she noted that “a lot of time and effort goes into it.”
Kaitlyn Turnbull flashes a smile and waves to the crowd. Sept. 9, 2017 (Phil McKenzie/CU Independent)
Turnbull’s favorite things about twirling are the opportunities to travel and the ability to meet others who are part of the twirling community. She enjoyed traveling across California for competitions when she was younger and having the chance to go to nationals in a different state each year.
Turnbull was on two international teams, one in Canada and the other in the Netherlands. She said being able to meet twirlers from other cultures was exciting. While they came from different places and spoke different languages, “we speak the same twirling language.”
This summer, Turnbull took part in the Twirling World Competition in Croatia, where she won a bronze medal competing against about a thousand other twirlers. It was her last competition.
While she said she was sad to stop competing, she’s excited to move on.
“I’ve been on three world tours, I have numerous national titles, what more can I do with the sport?” she said. “Other than get a gold, but that’s not really important to me at this point.”
If she wanted to, Turnbull could keep twirling after college. But between school, trying to make new friends and adjusting to attending an out-of-state school, adding competing to the mix was too much. This doesn’t mean that Turnbull will stop twirling all together though.
She has been hard at work practicing and performing with CU’s marching band. With so many home games to start the season, the band has been spending a lot of time together since band camp, which happens the week prior to the start of school.
With a more difficult course load, and the many hours with the marching band, Turnbull has had to figure out how to juggle her busy schedule.
“It’s a lot of time management and a lot of Red Bull,” she said.
Although she is the only twirler in CU’s marching band, and the only person in her section, she still feels a part of the tight-knit band community.
“I don’t feel disconnected [from the band],” she said. “If anything, I feel more connected because they all want to get to know me, and of course I really want to get to know them. We are together practically 24/7 until fall semester ends. So it’s a really nice family community.”
Turnbull enjoys performing; in fact, it is her favorite part of being in the marching band. She went with the rest of the band to Denver for the Rocky Mountain Showdown.
Turnbull said she loves twirling for people who have never seen it before.
“They see the baton go in the air and their eyes just widen up so big,” she said. “Little kids running up to me, taking pictures, signing autographs, it is one of the most amazing things.”
In order to share her love for twirling, Turnbull recently got certified as a coach and is coaching younger girls the basics of twirling.
“It’s been the most beneficial thing to me, because now I’m passing down my knowledge of the sport to their generation,” Turnbull said.
Turnbull plans to continue to pursue her passion through marching band, coaching and individual practice.
“I don’t want to let it slip,” Turnbull said. “I like the level I’m at and I want to learn more. I’m open to learning new tricks and flips and rolls. I just can’t keep up the level of difficulty I need to to continue competing at the level I am. It’s obviously still going to be part of me, but I’m excited to take that next step.”
Contact CU Independent News staff writer Anna Blanco at anna.blanco@colorado.edu.
