Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2007
by Patricia M. Murret | Staff Writer
Seneca Valley High School senior Sarah Mealy of Germantown was aglow Saturday night.
The 16-year-old, an accomplished baton twirler, performed at halftime of the SVHS-Damascus football game. But she didn’t use any ordinary baton. This one was rimmed in fire. To complicate the feat: Saturday was the first time she had attempted such a toss.
‘‘I was so nervous because I ended up not being able to practice the whole week and I had never done fire baton before,” Mealy said Sunday. ‘‘Right before we performed I went off to the side and tried it,” she said.
Saturday’s strong winds made it hard to light the baton and the music she choreographed her performance to ended before her prop ignited.
‘‘But when I performed I caught the baton, so it was OK,” Mealy laughed.
Also throwing a fire baton that night was Colleen Murphy, a senior at Damascus High School, who throws fire baton every week, Mealy said. The pair are longtime friends and stars of the Wheaton Dance Twirl Team.
The team of about 60 girls has won numerous local and national awards. Many twirlers from the team are offered college scholarships.
Last year, Mealy accompanied the team to the Netherlands, where the young women competed in international competition, an opportunity they earned by winning at nationals. This year they hope to qualify to compete in Belgium.
Sarah’s mother, who once dreamed of being a majorette, didn’t know anything about baton-twirling when her daughter got started, Vikki Mealy said. ‘‘When Sarah was little...our babysitter, Laura Wilkinson, was a nationally ranked USTA [United States Twirling Association] champion,” she said. ‘‘And she gave Sarah a baton when she was 18 months old and taught her how to march...We have videos of Sarah marching around the living room yelling, ‘March! March!’ and trying to twirl.”
By age four, Sarah was taking twirling classes from the Montgomery County Department of Recreation in Germantown. By kindergarten she was competing, and the young girl was hooked.
‘‘My husband was concerned,” Vikki Mealy said. ‘‘He thought baton was a little foo-foo.”
Burke Mealy pushed soccer until he saw older girls performing at a baton-twirling competition, she said.
‘‘Our mouths were hanging out...We could not believe the skill involved, all the athletics and dance and gymnastics,” Vikki Mealy said. ‘‘It is a sport.”
Twirling had Sarah Mealy practicing five hours a day every weekday this summer. Now, with school commitments, including Seneca’s cheerleading squad, she practices for five hours once or twice a week.
Her poise and strength had her selected as one of 10 women nationwide who performed earlier this month at the 57th International Festival of the Spring in Trujillo, Peru.
‘‘We did TV shows, we did performance for the news and even for the newspapers to take pictures, we visited elderly homes and orphanages...We had body guards and a security team with us at all times,” said Mealy, who is the youngest of five children. ‘‘My parents keep telling me I’m not a princess or celebrity anymore — it only works in Peru.”
