Twirling skirmish

By Julianna Parker
The Norman Transcript

July 31, 2008 11:40 pm

— It’s a lot more difficult than people think — catching those batons, twirling them around your body and sending them into the air again.
Just ask Meredith Sigler. As the featured twirler for the University of Oklahoma, she’s thrown her fair share of batons, even flaming ones.
“There’s a lot of little things that go into twirling,” said the multi-disciplinary studies senior. “… You have to work really hard just to get the basics down.”
But it can’t be too difficult for 22-year-old Sigler — she recently won two of the events at the international championships for baton twirling in Canton, Ohio.
She’s been competing for years, ever since she started twirling at age 7. Her mom used to twirl, so when her mom taught a class, Sigler decided to give it a try.
But mom Judy Sigler, of Rowlett, Texas, said her daughter has exceeded all expectations.
“She has by far surpassed anything I ever did,” the elder Sigler said.
The younger Sigler became the OU featured twirler four years ago as a freshman. She will start her fifth and final year as the lone twirler on the Pride of Oklahoma.
While at OU, her mom said Sigler has worked hard on her twirling performances.
“I think she has become more of a polished performer,” she said of her daughter.
Meredith Sigler said she loves to perform in front of fans at the OU football games. It’s different from performing for judges at competitions.
“All they care about is if you catch it or if you drop it,” she said of the crowds at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.
And Sigler said she does drop her batons sometimes, especially during practice as she’s learning what she can and cannot do. Sigler choreographs her own routines, so she said she focuses on what the crowd would like.
She also designs her own costumes for her performances. She searched far and wide to match the red of the Pride uniforms, and has to get all her red material from Illinois.
She has a special uniform for the OU/Texas game with an upside-down longhorn on the bum. It’s specially designed to snap off in case a Texas fan gets too worked up and tries to pull her bottoms down.
But there’s more to Sigler than just crowd-pleasing costumes, kicks and twirls, said Brian Britt, director of the Pride of Oklahoma.
“She really is the complete package,” Britt said. “She’s really, really bright, has a tremendous work ethic.”
He said she is just as good as any other of the excellent twirlers the Pride has featured. Where she goes a step further, Britt said, is in her level of community service, “using her role not as a vehicle for personal glorification but as an opportunity to serve as many people as she can.”
For example, about a year ago Sigler chaired the band’s canned food drive. It was the first year the group collected more than 10,000 canned goods to donate to the Cleveland County Christmas Store, Britt said.
“It was her leadership that really took it to that next level.”
Sigler said she constantly tries to challenge herself.
“Every single year I’ve had the goal of just getting a little better,” Sigler said. This year, she plans to use flaming batons at two football games, because it’s such a crowd-pleaser.
“If you hold it you get so hot it’s pretty much unbearable, but the crowd loves them so that’s pretty much why I do it,” Sigler said.
The weather will have to cooperate. Too much wind makes it impossible to work with flames. She uses batons soaked in kerosene and gasoline. She has someone stand nearby to hold the batons as she adds them one by one to her twirling, juggling routine.
Flaming batons weren’t part of her routine in the international championships. She won two events, the two baton event and the X strut event, where the twirler has to perform a specific pattern on the floor.
She’d been to the world championships but didn’t really expect to win. She’s been working this summer and studying for the Pharmacy College Admission Test so hadn’t had much time to prepare. But she’s pleased with the results.
It was her last year to compete, and she went out with a bang. Next summer, she hopes to be preparing for pharmacy school. She hopes to teach and judge twirling in the future, but her days as a featured twirler will be over.
“My body won’t take it anymore, I don’t think,” she said. She’s broken toes before, had hundreds of thousands of bruises over the years and is in physical therapy now because the cartilage under her knees is wearing down.
Twirling requires dance, gymnastics, strength and athleticism, Sigler said.
“And you also have to twirl a metal stick on top of that.”
But it’s been worth it. Sigler said she focuses on performing her best for the audiences at football games.
“I just want to make them proud that I’m their twirler.”