3...2...1... Happy New Year!!!

Hello Texas Twirl Fans. Welcome to 2017!

Today we get to celebrate many things... the start of the New Year, the ending of the old one, the possibilities that lie ahead, the successes, and the failures, that we leave behind.

While the general consensus has been that 2016 wasn't quite the banner year that the world was hoping for, it was a great year in terms of increasing communication across the Texas Twirling Community.

I have been humbled at all of your usage of the TexasTwirl.com website and the excitement over this blog. I am so appreciative of all the responses, involvement, and kind words. Our mission is to help keep our sport and our community going strong by bringing us together. I hope to see both continue to thrive in the coming year by spreading even more communication across our great State.

To celebrate what this blog has achieved, we wanted to do a Goodbye 2016 post to take a look back on the past six months of this blog's existence and recognize those that have helped contribute to our mission...

*Total Number of Blog Page Views Since First Post - 23,462 (WOW!!!)
*First Blog Post: June 21, 2016 - NBTA Texas State Championship Wrap Up
*Top Friday Night Lights Feature Post - Veteran's Memorial High School 
*Top Collegiate Twirler Spotlight Post - Erica Kuntz of University of Texas
*Team #TeamTexas AYOP 2016 Post - Vick's Chicks from Fort Worth
*Highest Number of Likes on Instagram - University of Baylor Golden Girls 
*Highest Number of Likes on Facebook - The Woodlands College Park HS Twirlers
*Highest Number of Shares on Facebook - University of Baylor Golden Girls

*Top 10 Posts By Page View Numbers:
         #1: 1,464 page views - Collegiate Twirler Spotlight - Erica Kuntz of University of Texas
         #2: 1,248 page views - Collegiate Twirler Spotlight - Sydney Webster of Texas Tech
         #3: 1,199 page views - Collegiate Twirler Spotlight - Kaitlen McNeill of Angelo State
         #4: 1,116 page views - Collegiate Twirler Spotlight - Baylor University Golden Girls
         #5: 1,106 page views - TX Twirling News - Twirler for a Day & Twirl Life Premier Update
         #6: 1,103 page views - Friday Night Lights Feature - Veterans Memorial High School
         #7:    967 page views - Collegiate Twirler Spotlight - UT Permian Basin Twirlers
         #8:    915 page views - Collegiate Twirler Spotlight - Lindsey McCormick of Mizzou
         #9:    816 page views - #TeamTexas Support - Miss Texas at Miss America
         #10:  784 page views - #TeamTexas AYOP 2016 - Deep in the Heart

Congrats to all of those who made it into the end of year wrap up and Top 10 list, and a big THANK YOU to everyone who has read, liked, shared, or contributed to any of our posts this year.

While we do have our Contest Calendar Series and our upcoming Collegiate Try-Out Update posts in progress, we are always looking for fun, new angles and information to share. Have an idea for an upcoming post or some exciting news to share with the community? Email texastwirlcontact@gmail.com.

Until the next post, remember...

Contest Calendar Series - Twirl in the Woods 2017

Hello Texas Twirl Fans!

After a short holiday break, we are back. With only 3 days left in 2016, we wanted to squeeze in one last post to make sure no one misses out on a GREAT contest happening in just a couple weeks.

Today for the Contest Calendar Series we will be discussing Twirl in the Woods 2017!

*DEADLINE TUESDAY* Please note that the deadline for this competition is Tuesday, January 3rd, 2017. You must have your entry postmarked by this day. You can either open the entry by clicking here or you can visit the official Twirl in the Woods 2017 website. For any additional questions, please contact the contest director, Patti Mickey, at patti@mickeysmajorettes.com.

Who? What? When? Where? Why?
Who - Contest Director Patti Mickey of Mickey's Majorettes
What - Twirl in the Woods 2017 Twirling Competition
When - Saturday, January 14, 2017. Doors open at 7:00 am. Contest begins at 8:00 am.
Where - The Woodlands College Park High School, 3701 College Park Dr, The Woodlands, TX 77384

*Picture on the left from the 2015 SW Regional Championship, used to showcase the facility size and ceiling height of the gym used for competition.

Why - Since this is the first competition of 2017, it is often one of the biggest of the season outside of the Regional and State competitions. Many coaches consider this contest to be the most accurate showing of what competition twirlers will face at the Southwest Regional Championship held later in the Spring. Many teams debut their routines here, and most of the twirling groups in the State will have representation. On top of that, the awards are extremely nice (tiaras, giant pageant trophies, the always popular light up trophies, Disney plushies, etc), and the contest runs very smooth for being as large as it is. It is definitely a 'must attend' for the season!

CONTEST HASHTAG! #twirlinthewoods2017
For this event, we strongly encourage our Texas Twirlers to utilize the hashtag #twirlinthewoods2017 when posting photos of this competition on social media. Below are some of the photos found on Facebook or Instagram that used the Twirl in the Woods hashtag during the 2016 competition. Shout out to Abby, Hailey, and Josie! Hashtag your photo this year and you might just see your picture in the contest follow up blog post.

Highlighted Event
A highlighted event for this competition is the team portion of the competition. As mentioned above, many teams premier their routines at Twirl in the Woods, which means team routines you have never seen before will all hit the floor for the first time. This is where we get to see the starting point behind all those hours of teamwork and new choreography. It is so exciting to see where the teams all begin each season and compare it to how far they go by the time we reach State in June.

Unique Feature
A unique feature of the Twirl in the Woods competition is always the award ceremony! You have to love any awards ceremony that has the placement blocks, an awesome photographer, and utilizes amazing senior twirlers from around the State to help pass out the awards. As you can see in the above Team Pictures, for the 2016 Twirl in the Woods competition, the awards were passed out by Baylor Feature Twirler, and current Miss Texas, Caroline Carothers. Should be exciting to see who will help pass out the awards this year!

Any Last Comments? 
Big shout out and photo cred goes to Mickey's Majorette Dad, Edward Obias, who took all these great photos included in today's blog and will be also be taking the award ceremony photos at the event. Thanks Mr. Obias! We love awesome twirl dads, especially when they are also pretty great photographers.

Want to attend this event?  Please visit the Twirl in the Woods 2017 website or contact the contest director, Patti Mickey, at patti@mickeysmajorettes.com for more details.

We hope you have this edition of the Contest Calendar Series. We are always looking for great new stories about Texas twirlers. Do you have an idea or some information we could use to help highlight our sport? Please contact us at texastwirlcontact@gmail.com and we would love to hear more about it. 

Saturday Night Lights - 5A & 6A Playoffs!!!

Hello Texas Twirl Fans! We all know in Texas that football is a BIG DEAL! All season, the football players fight their way from game to game in hopes of making it into the State Playoffs. Baton Twirlers love football season because it gives our twirlers a chance to get out on the field and showcase their talents for the crowd.

Tomorrow is the BIG DAY many football players have been working all year for... The UIL 5A & 6A State Playoff Games!!! These games will be played on December 17th at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX.

While it is exciting that some amazing football will be going on... the Texas twirling community gets to celebrate as well because there will also be some AWESOME baton twirlers! We wanted to a take a minute to give a big shout out the the TWELVE Texas baton twirlers that will get to take the field at the AT&T Stadium tomorrow to perform in support of their school.

5A D1 Championship Game at 12:00 pm 

Highland Park HS (Dallas) vs. Temple HS (Temple)

Featuring the Highland Park High School Twirler

Senior Mela McMinn

Coached by Texas Touch Of Class (Sheila Rigelsky)

6A D2 Championship Game at 4:00 pm 

Desoto HS (Desoto) vs Steele HS (Cibolo)

Featuring the Desoto High School Majorettes

Coached by Shirley Payne

Featuring the Steele HS Sparklers Feature Twirlers - 

Senior Abby Neuman, Senior Julie Griffee, & Melinda Branson

Coached by the Sweet Sensations (Michele Pangrac & Mary Ann Srulowitz)

6A D1 Championship Game at 8:00 pm

The Woodlands HS (The Woodlands) vs Lake Travis HS (Austin)

Featuring The Woodlands HS Feature Twirlers - 

Senior Isabel Obias, Senior Jillian Romaguera, & Rachel Hutchinson

Coached by Mickey's Majorettes (Patti Mickey)

*Photo credit to Edward Obias

Congrats ladies on getting to see your High School Football teams all the way into the State Playoffs! We want to wish the best of luck to your teams and also to all of you in hopes of great performances. We can't wait to see you all show Texas what our twirlers can bring to the field! Go Team Texas!