Baton Twirler Ella Marvel And Her Stepperettes Team Win World Championship In Italy

Ella Marvel has loved baton twirling ever since attending a University of Iowa football game as a child. This summer, that love led her to a worldwide stage.

On a team of 32 individuals, with ages ranging from mid-teens to 20s, Marvel helped take home a gold medal at the International Baton Twirling Federation World Competition. The competition was hosted in Torino, Italy, and included teams and individuals from across the globe. Her team won in the Majorette Core category.

“This is the biggest competition in the world of baton. So this is like their Olympics,” Marvel’s mother Katie said. “You know, there’s a lot of nerves involved when you’re these girls who have worked on this. They’ve twirled their entire lives.”

Marvel competes as a member of the Stepperettes baton twirling team, an Omaha-based organization she has been a part of since starting her twirling journey in first grade. In this time, she has participated in a variety of competitive ensembles along with solo performances.

The group qualified for worlds at the national competition at Notre Dame University last summer. In the year following, they continued to work with a variety of coaches to perfect their routine. This included frequent, lengthy practice sessions with coaches from across the country.

“We have practices for around six or seven hours with coaches from different states,” Ella Marvel said. “One of our coaches is from California, and he is just so good at choreography, so he had a really big impact on our routine.”

With stiff competition from other teams, Marvel explained that there was a major emphasis on avoiding point deductions from baton drops and other mistakes.

“We thought even one point was gonna be a lot,” she said. “At our practices, they were telling us that we need to keep redoing our routine because three is definitely too much.”

Once the competition finally came, Marvel was ready. However, she worked to hold back her expectations to ensure her and her teammates could enter the process with a level head.

“Down deep, I knew we had a chance, but I couldn’t show my emotion too much for my team members because I didn’t want to be really disappointed,” she said.

Now, Marvel is taking some time to absorb the win and celebrate the work she’s done.

“I was really excited, not only for myself, but for my coaches that have put in the crazy hours with us instead of their families,” she said. “It was just kind of like a fake dream that I felt like I was living in. And it was amazing to do it with all my best friends that I’ve grown up with since I was little.”

Marvel has been the feature twirler for the Glenwood Marching Rams for the duration of her high school career and is currently entering her senior year. In the future, she hopes to pursue twirling at the collegiate level.

“I would love to twirl in college,” she said. “So, I’m exploring my options, and hopefully you’ll see me on the field one day.”