By Michelle Queen
No, we're not talking about the twisters of the nature variety, these Twisters are the Maryland Twisters of Glen Burnie, Maryland. The Maryland Twisters are a well renowned, highly accomplished, all-star cheerleading organization. In fact, this gym is ranked among the top ten cheerleading gyms in the country according to American Cheerleader magazine. Athletes from ages 4-infinity compete in nationwide competitions with routines showcasing skills from stunting to tumbling. One of their most well known teams, F5 (large senior all-girl), have won the Cheerleading Worlds (basically the Superbowl of elite teams held in Disney World's Wide World of Sports complex) 4 times. While the level 5 teams (highest level of difficulty for junior/senior teams) F5, Reign, Supercells, and more showed off their skills in Reach the Beach Ocean City, the hardworking novice and intermediate teams swept through the CheerSport Championship in the University of Maryland College Park like a storm.
for more information on the Twisters go to www.marylandtwisters.com
Entering the stadium you see masses of young girls in each of their gyms perspective colors, enthusiastic cheer moms with the daughters face printed on their shirts and wearing a lot of beads, clusters of girls huddling around their coaches trying to hear directions through the loud crowd, sometimes intense whiffs or hairspray, random shiny sparkly ribbons fallen on the ground, of course there's a lot of fallen glitter on the floor as well. However through all the traffic, all the chaos, there's a weird peace; a disheveled order. This is definitely the norm for cheer competitions and it's somewhat welcoming. Walking into the seating area it seems like almost all the seats center stage are packed. It's dark leaving only the lights of the stage as a guide. The music is loud, blasting Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO inbetween performances, and finally some side seats by the stage are found.
Vonda Davis of Columbia, mother of Jasmine who cheers for the senior level 2 team of the Twisters, stated proudly "that's my daughter right there..." pointing behind the stage as her daughter's team was on deck to perform. As her performance time arrived everyone from the Twister's organization, parents, coaches, cheerleaders, sat on the floor in front of the stage (custom for most teams) to cheer them on up close. They performed with few mistakes, one stunt bobbling, and still resulted in getting first in their division. After the awards session for senior teams levels 2-5 concluded, the competition was officially over at about 4:30. "This is an easy competition, sometimes your here from 8 a.m to 8 p.m" Davis said laughing. And this from very firsthand experience is true. But, after retiring from cheerleading, that little organized chaos feels like home and is always welcome.
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