Halftime Signatures: Baton twirler aims to inspire enthusiasm for sport

In anticipation of the UCLA-USC football matchup Thanksgiving weekend, Daily Bruin A&E features members of the UCLA Bruin Marching Band. Today’s installment profiles Michelle Glymph, an alumna and ex-Golden Girl, or featured baton twirler.

Cheers rang through the air as the crowd of tailgating spectators waved the UCLA Bruin Marching Band through the grassy area near the Rose Bowl. Baton twirler and Golden Girl Michelle Glymph leaped at the front of the band lineup, her silvery batons flashing high above the marching band.

As the band broke into a rendition of a show tune, a mother carrying her small child approached Michelle to ask for a photograph. She said in that moment, as the child gazed awestruck at the glittering gold costume, she was proud to act as a role model.

“(That) little girl who ran up to me to take a picture with me might be a Golden Girl one day,” Michelle Glymph said. “(The enthusiasm) just builds up.”

During her four years at UCLA, Glymph, who graduated in 2015, performed with the marching band as one of two baton twirlers. While she does not perform at games anymore, her halftime show routines were the result of a decade and a half of competitive baton twirling and hours spent practicing tricks in the gym after school.

Michelle Glymph hails from a family of baton twirlers – her two sisters twirl, and her mother, Patty, competed in baton twirling for 15 years and performed in the color guard during her undergraduate years at USC.

Patty Glymph, who taught baton twirling classes to students aged 3 to 15 years old, said her young daughter would eagerly participate in drills and routines.

“(Michelle) was 3 years old, and she always wanted to stand in the front,” Patty Glymph said. “She was very self-driven, even at a young age.”

An early dream, Michelle Glymph said, was to twirl and perform for a large university. To improve her skills, she attended lessons during her elementary school days, a time when she said some classmates teased her for twirling batons in her spare time.

She eventually competed at national championships from when she was 6 years old until her second year in college and won a silver medal at the world championship when she was in seventh grade.

Glymph said UCLA Athletics does not recruit baton twirlers, so those interested in auditioning must apply via the traditional University of California application, where they are first accepted through holistic evaluation.

Glymph said no twirler had been admitted for the past nine years before her. Many elite performers, Glymph said, do not focus on school or maintaining their grades because their time is taken up by baton twirling.

When she arrived at UCLA, she lacked a coach or a mentor figure because of the nine-year absence of a baton twirler. She had to improvise her tricks and create her own routines to add a glittering visual interpretation of the formations the band created behind her.

“It’s easier to make up your own routines because I’m not going to remember. I’m not going to turn on my memory,” Glymph said. “I’m just going to go do whatever my heart and spirit desires.”

The crowd responds enthusiastically to her large and full movements, which are well suited for the open air of the football stadium, said Beverly Johnson, one of Glymph’s competitive coaches.

About a decade after she began coaching Glymph, Johnson attended a UCLA football game and saw her perform elaborate routines she had improvised herself. Johnson said her charisma is evident even from the back of the stands.

“To see (Glymph) one time on the football field, I felt like she had enough experience to do this on her own,” Johnson said. “It (was) very satisfying.”

Patty Glymph frequently tailgates at UCLA football games with her husband and also cheers her daughter on from the stands. She said her family jokes about the rivalry between her and her daughter’s alma maters, especially as the UCLA-USC football game draws nearer.

Two of Michelle Glymph’s past competitive coaches are affiliated with USC, Patty Glymph said, resulting in the expectation that Michelle Glymph would attend USC.

When her daughter chose UCLA, however, Patty Glymph traded in her cardinal spirit wear for blue and gold.

Michelle Glymph said the support from her parents, coaches, the band and the athletic teams have generated respect for twirling, a sport which she said is not as well-known as dance or gymnastics.

Her goal is to act as an advocate for baton twirling and as an example of confidence for spectators, including children who run up to her after games for autographs and photos.

“Everything (I do) is really about building up the sport, and I take pride in it,” Glymph said. “Now that I’m old enough to not be made fun of for it, I very much love that I did it.”