The glow of the stadium lights shone upon Chloe Ho (10) during halftime of the season’s first football game. She tossed her baton up in the air before balancing on her right foot and swinging her left in a semi-circle in the air, completing a right foot illusion and successfully catching her baton, Aug 22.
Excitement rushed through Ho as she completed her first performance with Westview GOLD before a crowd of 7,000.
Despite her nerves, Ho said she enjoyed every minute of her performance and was pleased with the outcome and is excited to continue performing at more games.
“As I was lining up to run onto the field, I was actually really excited, and when I did start running to my spot, all the nerves were gone and I didn’t have time to think,” Ho said. “I just did my routine, and I would say that it was really fun, and I loved my first football performance. I was satisfied with my performance, and even though I dropped the baton, I’ll continue working hard and perform even better the next game.”
Before stepping on the field, Ho said that her coach’s support and encouragement helped prepare her well for her first performance with Westview.
“Before halftime, I was stressed because I hadn’t performed in a long time,” Ho said. “My coach came to support me, and I’m super thankful for that because she helped me warm up my tricks and gave me a pep talk. She assured me that I am capable of catching everything, and that made me feel a lot better.”
As the first-ever baton twirler at Westview, the stakes for Ho are high, but her years of experience keep her confident. She began baton twirling in third grade and fell in love with the sport.
“My sister went to a different school than I did, and they had an after-school program where they learned the basics and fundamentals of baton twirling,” Ho said. “I remember picking her up one day, and I thought it looked so cool, so I had my mom sign me up, and I’ve been twirling ever since.”
Ho said baton twirling’s wide range of tricks are what keeps her hooked on the sport. She never gets bored because the possibilities of new skills are never-ending.
“Baton has an endless number of tricks you can do, I think that’s why I’ve stuck with it for so long,” Ho said. “Once I master a trick, there is always a way for my coach to make it harder and challenge me.”
Ho expresses how proud she is of where she is today and the journey she went through to achieve it.
“This endless cycle in baton twirling, and seeing my growth from when I started with a recreational program at YMCA, to a competitive program under Tide Baton Twirling, gives me a real sense of accomplishment and pride that I have come this far,” Ho said.
According to Ho, baton twirling welcomes a lot of trial and error, success, and failure.
“I’ve had many experiences where I have dropped my baton during a routine,” Ho said. “I do my best to practice tricks that I drop over and over again to prepare before a performance or a competition, but if I drop a trick, I just pick it up and keep going because there is nothing I can do about the past; I can only move on and do my best to catch the tricks that follow.”
To Ho, the most rewarding part of baton twirling is its novelty and distinctiveness. The sport is one that isn’t commonly seen.
“My favorite thing about baton twirling is the fact that it’s unique and really has a wow factor,” Ho said. “Whenever I tell people that I am a baton twirler, usually they are initially confused, and I have to describe it for them, but then they tell me that what I do is very cool and special, and that always brings a smile to my face.”
After years training and competing beside a group of other solo twirlers, this year is Ho’s first time twirling without her teammates cheering her on.
“Being a solo baton twirler definitely has pros and cons, but I think twirling solo is harder than twirling with a team because you don’t have as big of a support community,” Ho said. “Baton twirling isn’t a very popular sport, so those who are baton twirlers tend to form a very tight-knit support group. I think that having a group of people who do the same sport as you and push you to become a better athlete is really important because they not only make practices more fun, but also because all our skillsets and strengths are so different, we can all help each other with the strengths we do have.”
Hoping to create a larger community of twirlers at Westview, Ho also said she aims to spread her skills and knowledge of the sport on campus.
“I hope from my performances this year, I’ll have introduced baton twirling to other students and interested them in trying out the sport and joining me,” Ho said. “As of right now, I am the only twirler at Westview, but next year, my sister will join me on the team and continue even after I graduate. We’ve been supporting each other ever since we were little, and I think it’s really special to be able to share these experiences with her and have a partner at Westview.”
