Story by Sofía Basurto
Visuals by Jane Durden
[Audio – Crowd noise at UNC vs Duke basketball game]
Sofía Basurto
Sporting events are home to all kinds of entertainment. The game itself, contests, music, and performances. Cheerleaders or dance teams come on to keep the hype going on during breaks. And they’re not the only ones.
[Audio – Crowd reaction to Julia Arciola]
Sofía Basurto
Add baton twirling. Julia Arciola wows the crowd at Carolina basketball, football, and any other sporting games she can attend. In the Smith Center, you can catch her coming in for a time out, cleanly catching three batons before she throws them up again.
Arciola has been twirling since she was five. What started as a way for her parents to entertain her, led her to three titles at the U.S. National Championships. and she’s represented Team USA five times at the World Championships. but her biggest goal was twirling in college.
Julia Arciola
“College twirling is almost a like a pinnacle in in every little twirlers minds.”
Sofía Basurto
Arciola is the feature twirler at UNC. It’s been a while since UNC had a feature twirler, the last one having been in 2020. It’s also a position that’s not easily filled. for two main reasons; performance and demand.
Jeff Fuchs
“Nobody auditioned that I felt was able of performing at a high level all the time.”
Sofía Basurto
That’s Jeff Fuchs, UNC band director. Arciola’s addition to the band has been easy. She’s so advanced that she doesn’t require a coach. If Fuchs tells her that during a performance he wants her here, here, and here, she’ll be there. All while choreographing her own routines.
Also, there aren’t a lot of people interested in the position. Lauren Nogle of the Flourish Baton Club, says that North Carolina isn’t what you would call a “twirling state” as some states in the midwest are.
Lauren Nogle
“I feel like it used to be, maybe in like the seventies and eighties. I’ll hear, I used to take classes in Raleigh.”
Sofía Basurto
Nogle, is a former NC State twirler and the head of the Flourish Baton Club. She trains about 20 twirlers from across the state.
[Audio – Lauren Nogle coaching]
Sofía Basurto
Laura Squibb brought her daughter from Fayetteville to train. Ryanne started twirling when she was three, and it was something her mother and grandmother did in their youth. At eight years old she loves it.
Ryanne Squibb
“My favorite thing about the baton is that my mom used to take the twirl when she was five years old.”
Sofía Basurto
Palmer Pauletich loves practicing with her team. Her mother, Melissa Pauletich, grew up in Ohio, where everyone twirled as a child.
Melissa Pauletich
“Like it was something that you started in kindergarten and everybody did it for a couple of years. Anyone you talk to will tell you they did it for at least a year or two.”
Sofía Basurto
But now, she can’t even secure official twirling shoes for Palmer. They’re so scarce and are regularly sold out online.
Despite the small community, twirlers form lasting bonds through shared love for the sport.
And that helps grow the sport, especially in a non-twirling state. Arciola is helping it grow too.
Jeff Fuchs
“We’ve started to get a lot more interest in really good twirlers.”
Sofía Basurto
I’m Sofia Basurto reporting.
