Melissa Gaffney has to twirl her baton. Sure, she wants to do it, but as the Syracuse University Orange Girl explained, it’s about much more than that.

‘It’s like a rush,’ Gaffney said. ‘When you’re standing out on the field before you run out there, to hear so many people cheering for you, it’s amazing. Runners have to run, I have to twirl.’

The sophomore nutrition major needs to feel the cool metal of the baton slide across her palms and neck. She needs to hear the crowd’s sharp intake of breath when she releases the baton into a high toss that coincides perfectly with a crescendo in the band’s song.

It is a need that has been developing since she was two and a half years old and saw her baby sitter twirling a baton. Gaffney told her mother shortly thereafter that she wanted to give it a try herself.

So, the Woburn, Mass. native went to the recreation department in her town and joined her first baton team at the age of 4. But as her skills with the baton increased and her passion grew, Gaffney decided she needed something bigger than what the recreation program could offer.

At the age of 10, Gaffney joined a team in New Hampshire and has been there ever since. During vacations and the summer, Gaffney goes back to the school to teach classes and practice with her team, the World Champion Red Star Twirlers.

Gaffney worked with Syracuse University’s former Orange Girl as a member of the Red Star Twirlers and fell in love with the university while visiting her. Even after her first winter in Syracuse, this love has not worn off.

‘I just love it, even the snow,’ she said. ‘If I had gotten accepted and not been selected as the twirler, I still would have come here.’

After getting accepted to SU, Gaffney contacted the marching band director to inquire about the Orange Girl position. She auditioned along with one other girl and received a call saying she had been chosen two days later.

‘I freaked out,’ Gaffney said.

As the Orange Girl, she is considered the university’s featured twirler. This year, she will expand her horizons as she will twirl at the men’s basketball games as well as football games, she said.

As far as Gaffney is concerned, what she does on the sidelines is as much of a sport as what is happening in the games.

‘There’s a whole competition aspect as well as performance,’ she said. ‘It makes you work hard; you’ll be sore the next day.’

Gaffney’s efforts are not lost on members of the marching band.

‘It takes a lot of commitment and dedication for her to pull this off,’ said Shaina Rosenthal, a sophomore television, radio and film major, who belongs to the SU marching band drum line. ‘Everyone else has an instructor, but she has to come up with her own routines.’

During football season, Gaffney practices with the marching band and choreographs her routines to coincide with its songs. In addition, she designs and purchases the outfits she wears during her performances.

‘I get to pick them out. The university doesn’t pay for them,’ she said. In addition, Gaffney clarified that she does not get a scholarship for baton.

‘Her rhythm is just mesmerizing,’ said Ashley Kessler, a drum line member and sophomore wildlife sciences major at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. ‘You look at her and just think ‘Wow, I can’t do that.”

Gaffney said her main priority during football games is to not drop her baton; however, she knows that a perfect routine is not always possible.

‘You just have to keep going. I mean, what are you going to do, walk off the field? It is worse when I’m (twirling) on the sidelines because then I can hear what people say,’ she said.

Even a perfect performance does not give Gaffney the same joy as hearing from her young fans.

‘Here on campus, I love when little girls come up to me and ask for my autograph,’ she said. Not surprisingly, Gaffney has a great love for teaching baton to the youngsters in New Hampshire.

Gaffney’s love for children has inspired her career aspirations as well, as she hopes to become a pediatric dietitian. In addition, she hopes to one day open her own baton studio where she will continue to teach young twirlers.

Published on November 15, 2005 at 12:00 pm