What a week is had been. We want to send our thoughts and prayers to our Houston twirl family who have been experiencing heavy rains and flooding. If you are in the Houston area and need any help, please reach out and let us know what we can do to assist you!
Luckily, while the twirlers in today’s interview are from the Houston area, the rain subsided enough for them to enjoy tonight’s game, even though they did get sprinkled on just a little bit.
Each season this blog likes to get to know some of these awesome twirlers a little better by learning about them and their experiences. We will be meeting a new High School twirler each Friday through the season with the Friday Night Lights Features, and discovering more about our Texas Collegians with the Collegiate Twirler Spotlights during the week. Make sure to follow us at facebook.com/twirlingiscatchingtx or on Instagram @twirlingiscatchingtx for lots of live content and Insta-story take overs by some of your favorites.
This week’s Friday Night Lights Feature is The Woodlands College Park High School Feature Twirlers!
The Woodlands College Park High School is a school many NBTA twirlers from Texas should be familiar with, as it is the location of the Annual Twirl in the Woods contest. TWCPHS has wonderful facilities which has helped promote a great history of baton twirlers over the past decade, and we love seeing that continue with the current Feature Twirlers, Madison Frantzen and Sophia Dinubilo.
The Cavalier Marching Band Community is very supportive of their twirlers, and of twirling in general. Did you know that the TWCPHS Band Director’s Daughter was the 2019 Texas State Tiny Tot Basic Skills Champion? Isn’t that the cutest? With such a great appreciation for twirlers, the audition process is relatively simple. As the twirlers told us, “for auditions you talk to our amazing band director about joining the twirlers. After you prepare a routine, you perform it for the band director, and he decides who will twirl that year”.
There have been a lot of great opportunities for the twirlers at TWCPHS as part of the Marching Band and as Game Day entertainment. We asked Madison and Sophia what part of Game Day is their favorite and they told us, “when we get to go on the field after a football game and sing the school song with the football players and cheerleaders.” Love seeing school unity like that between organizations!
We asked the twirlers about their marching band program and they told us the band "loves to clap for basically anything”. Well, when your band has a lot worth clapping for, that makes sense. The TWCPHS Marching Band not only has State & Regional Champion Baton Twirlers, the program is very well respected in the school. This year both the Homecoming King and Queen were part of the Band. In fact, according to their band director, a band member has been King or Queen for 11 of the past 12 years. Wow! Band students are hard working kids and it is wonderful to see them get the recognition they deserve in the student body.
Now that we have learned a little about the TWCPHS Community, let’s learn more about their twirlers!
Competition Level: Intermediate
Madison has been twirling for 6 years. She is a member of the Mickey’s Majorettes and is coached by Patti Mickey and Kayli Mickey McIntosh. The competition title she is the proudest of winning was the 2018 Beginner Junior Texas Pageant. Her favorite field trick is anything 3 Baton. In baton twirling she has been most inspired by current University of Texas Feature Twirler, Caroline Carothers. After High School she hopes to attend Texas A&M University and earn a degree in Education.
Competition Level: Advanced
Sophia has been twirling for 7 years. She is also a member of the Mickey’s Majorettes and is coached by Patti Mickey and Kayli Mickey McIntosh. The competition title she is the proudest of winning was the 2018 Pre-Teen Miss Majorette of the Southwest pageant. In baton twirling, she was most inspired by her Mickey’s Majorette teammate, Isabel Obias. Her favorite field trick is a high toss front walkover. After High School she hopes to twirl for a University.
Fun Facts!
Favorite Color - Pink (Both Madison & Sophia)
Favorite Movie - Any of the Star Wars Movies (Madison), Clueless (Sophia)
Favorite Music - Pop (Both Madison & Sophia)
Favorite Quote…
Madison – “Happy girls are the prettiest girls” – Audrey Hepburn
Sophia – “Though she is little, she is fierce”
When they are not twirling, they love to…
Madison – “Spend time with my family and swim”
Sophia – “Hang out with my friends and practice makeup”
Something you might not know about them is…
Madison – “I am in the teaching club for my school and compete competitively”
Sophia – “I really like to paint and make art”
These two ladies have a ton of fun twirling together. Already having been teammates, they knew each other well and had similar styles, which made the transition easy. They get to enjoy learning skills together and appreciate the camaraderie that comes from being co-features. This also leads to a lot of laughter. We asked what was one of the funniest things that has happened to them since they started twirling together. Madison said, “During the duet section we perform, Sophia hit me in the face and we couldn’t stop laughing”. Oh geez! At least they can both laugh about it!
We asked Madison and Sophia what the #1 non-twirling life skill they have learned from baton twirling was and they told us, “learning how to be self-motivated and always in a positive mood.” Being self-motivated is a very hard thing to learn, especially in a situation where you are twirling and may not have constant direction from the Directors. We wanted to know how they kept their focus during practices, and they shared some great advice. “We always try to make a list of what we want to get done that day and make sure we don’t get off topic”. That is a super productive way to approach practices!
As this is Madison’s senior year and Sophia’s freshman year, it will be their only year twirling together. Their co-feature bond is already strong, and losing that time together is what they will both miss the most when the season is over. They have really loved their time getting ready and practicing together, and seeing their hard work pay off on the field.
To wrap up our interview we asked these ladies what their best advice was for future High School twirlers. Madison told us “Smile big, and just have fun!” and Sophia kept it simple but strong with, “Never Give Up!” Both are great words of advice for any twirler.
We want to say thank you to Madison and Sophia for introducing us to the TWCPHS community and we wish them the best of luck with an amazing field season. Go Cavs!
We hope you have enjoyed this blog post. 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? Contact us at texastwirlcontact@gmail.com and we would love to hear more about it.
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