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A pearl of a girl tweaks her twirl
Photo
Isabella Rexroad, 7, is the Little Miss Majorette of America. She said shes likes being able to perform big tricks and trying her best. Photo by Nick Mays | The Vindicator
By JoAnn Jones
NILES
At age 7, Isabella Rexroad of Niles is already thinking about college scholarships and traveling to Europe.
After all, “hard work pays off” said Bella, as she is called, and she’s already proved she knows how to work hard.
Bella, a second-grader at Niles Primary School and the most recently crowned Little Miss Majorette of America, began twirling a baton when she was just 4, and she now practices two to three hours a day.
Because she has a national title, she and her mother have researched colleges that give twirling scholarships, and Bella has a goal of making it to the world twirling championships in Italy in 2015.
“This year I’d like to place second or third in nationals,” Bella said. “The top three get to go to World in Italy.”
“She was just starting her first year of dance,” said her mother, Kana Rexroad, of Bella’s introduction to twirling. “Her dance studio had a summer camp, and they taught the girls baton skills. The first day the teacher said they’d demonstrated very basic skills, and Bella picked them up very quickly.”
“Every day that week she learned new skills,” Rexroad continued. “They thought maybe she had a natural aptitude for baton. So after that she leaned more toward learning baton.”
As a result of her hard work, Bella now has numerous awards from the National Baton Twirling Association (NBTA), which include state and national championships in several areas of twirling.
During the competition season that began last November in Columbus, Bella earned titles of Tiny Tot Ohio State Strut Champion, Little Miss Majorette of Ohio, Tiny Tot Ohio State Queen, and Tiny Tot Two-Baton Champion, among others.
These titles qualified her for national competition in July at the University of Notre Dame, where she became a national champion.
“In baton twirling, you progress through levels of intermediate and advanced,” Rexroad said. “Last summer [2012] she moved to advanced, and she won Miss Majorette of the Great Lakes. She went on to nationals and placed fourth.”
During the week of July 23-28, Bella’s practice paid off when she came in first at the NBTA’s competition.
“I usually practice two hours a day every day,” Bella said, “and sometimes I have to practice longer.”
Part of Bella’s practice includes a one-hour trip once or twice a week to Geneva College in Pennsylvania, where she receives instruction from Kathy Harris, who was a competitive twirler herself and who has trained other national champions.
“I work with six or eight students from Ohio,” Harris said. “Bella is one of the hardest-working 7-year-olds I’ve ever taught. She’s very self-motivated and eager to learn.”
“She’s a very well-rounded young lady, too,” Harris added. “She’s very good in school, and she’s very independent.”
Harris, who limits the number of students she takes because her own children are involved in twirling, dance and sports, said that twirlers don’t get the recognition they should.
“Twirling is very much a sport,” said Harris, who has also instructed students in Maryland, Nebraska and France. “The students’ stamina, their [hours of] practice. … At one time, baton twirling was second behind Scouting as to the number of participants in the United States.”
Bella also practices at the Niles Wellness Center during the week.
“Sometimes Daddy takes me to practices,” Bella said of her father, Michael. “Daddy thinks twirling is cool. He came to Nationals on competition days.”
On most weekends throughout the school year, she and her mother stay in hotels while Bella competes.
“We practically live in hotels all year because of the competitions,” Rexroad said. “At nationals sometimes the coach [Harris] rents a house because she spends all week with the girls.”
Living in hotels on weekends isn’t the only expense for the Rexroad family, however. Bella has to have costumes for solo, duet, two-baton, and strut competitions.
“She can wear the costumes all year, though,” her mother said.
Bella, who has a best friend and duet partner in Analise Powell of Champion, said that what she likes best about twirling is “we get to practice with our friends.”
Analise, who is 9 and competes in a different age bracket, also trains with Harris. In July she won the title of Juvenile Miss Majorette of America, and both girls performed at a Scrappers game Aug. 22.
“I’ve known her since I was 4,” Bella said. “We practice a lot in the summer together. When we were at Nationals, after I won, I said: ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we both won?’ And when I heard her name, I ran on the court and hugged her. We were both crying.”
Bella, whose goal is to be a feature twirler for a university band, said Coach Harris gave her a week off after she won her national title. But Bella knows more work is ahead.
“They say, ‘practice makes perfect,’” she said.