WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES APRIL 5, 2018 15
Glendale baton-twirler heading to World Championship
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BY RYAN KELLEY
RKELLEY@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
TWITTER @R_KELLEY6
A decorated baton twirler from
Glendale who has spent her
entire life competing in the
sport is heading to the world’s biggest
stage yet again.
Trina Catterson, a senior at Frank
Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria,
will make her third trip to the World
Baton Twirling Championships in
Kissimmee, Florida, from Aug. 1 to
5. Catterson and her team, Encore,
earned the right to represent Team
USA when they won the national trials
in Shelbyville, Indiana, on March 24
and 25.
Baton twirling has been a lifelong
passion for Catterson, who first
picked up a baton when she was 4
years old, and she said her competitive
nature has always driven her to
reach new heights with her baton.
“I’ve always enjoyed the competitive
aspect of it,” Catterson said. “I
just fell in love with the sport from
the start and all the experiences that
came along with it.”
Catterson’s exposure to the sport
and her natural affi nity for it go handin
hand. Her mother, Kathy Catterson,
started baton-twirling in the 1970s,
competed in local competitions
and eventually became
a twirling coach. As a toddler,
Trina Catterson would stand
in the background at her
mother’s classes and absorb
everything.
That’s why by the
age of 6, Catterson already won her first
national competition.
“I would say at 4 you
could tell by her motor
skills and wrist fl exibility,
she could move that baton
like nothing, like butter,”
Kathy Catterson said. “Being
that I was a coach and
baton twirler myself, you
don’t usually see that develop
until later on.”
Baton twirling has since led
Catterson to all parts of the
country and beyond, which
she said is one of her favorite
parts about the
experience. In 2012,
she competed in
her first World
Championship in
Villebon sur Yvette,
France, where she
won a bronze medal in the junior pairs
competition, and in 2014 she competed
in the World Championship in
England.
Today, Catterson fl ies to Ohio
every few weeks to train with
her Encore teammates who
hail from Texas, Louisiana,
Arkansas and Florida, to
name a few. Kathy Catterson
said the girls have
formed a very strong
bond that was clear with
the way they performed
at the national trials. But
advancing to the fi nals may
not have been the most special
part about the team.
Baton-twirling routines are
scored on a 100-point scale
based on the diffi culty of the
routine, how the team uses the
fl oor, what tricks are being
done, how the team works
as a group and, of course,
there are deductions for
dropping batons. Another
factor of the
score, however, is
artistic expression
and how the team
portrays its theme.
According to
Catterson, team
Encore’s competition routine has a
heartfelt message.
“It’s a tribute to all the terrorist
attacks and how at the end we all
overcome it to work together as one,”
Catterson said. “It was our coaches
that came up with it, but when it
comes to performing it, it was us that
said we need to commit to the theme
to really portray the theme and it was
a hard process.”
Catterson described that the music
and choreography in the routine
are meant to reflect the different
emotions experienced during these
tragedies, and the twirlers have to
use their facial expressions to bring
the performance to life.
In the months leading up to the
World Championship, Catterson is
already focusing on her future aft er
that. On April 14, she will travel to
Arizona State University, where she
has committed to go to college, and
try out to be the majorette for the
school’s marching band. For Catterson
it would be a dream come true,
she said, and for her mom it would
be her proudest moment yet.
“Twirling for thousands of football
fans in the stadium and hearing those
cheer with school pride, what a proud
mom I would be,” Kathy Catterson
said. “I hope her dream comes true.
She’s a wonderful person who deserves
it.”
Photo courtesy of Kathy Catterson
Trina Catterson holds her baton
and wears a medal after her team,
Encore, advanced to the World
Championships.
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