Former Champ Helps Train Baton-Twirlers

Those who work with Tammi Conn know she can be a very calming influence.

Valley View School District 365U’s Director of Career and Technical Education credits her calm demeanor to her 21-year baton twirling career  

in which she received a full 4-year scholarship to Indiana State University, won the National Show Twirling Championship and the Twirling Unlimited International Twirling Champion and as Miss World Majorette. Oh yes, she also won the All American Girl competition which was based on modeling and an interview.

“I learned how to keep calm during very intimidating interviews.  I learned how to persevere, and how to work through pain and to not give up on my goal,” Conn said. “I also learned that if things don’t go your way today there’s still tomorrow and the sun will come up and your mom still loves you.”

Conn, who has four brothers, started twirling in a park district program when she was 4 years old. Because her mom was determined that she would not be a tom boy, she enrolled her daughter in ballet, tap, dance, gymnastics and baton twirling.  She nearly was pulled out of baton because the instructor didn’t take 4-year-olds in her class. But, after two lessons with Conn, the instructor saw the natural talent and changed her mind.

For the next two decades, Conn put in long hours fine-tuning her skills and competing around the country.

“Some people thought that I felt like I was above them because I never

hung out or participated in after school events,” she recalled. “But my baton twirling friends knew the rigorous training schedule I had to endure in order to perfect my talent of baton twirling.”       

These days, in addition to her VVSD duties, Conn works closely with eight baton twirling students.  Some of her former students have been Feature Twirlers at University of Illinois, University of Minnesota, Indiana State University, Texas Tech University and the University of Hawaii. Among her current students is Bolingbrook High School’s Mary Kate Ramsay, who is the granddaughter of Conn’s very first teacher. Last month Ramsay won the United States Twirling Association’s Illinois State Twirling Championships.

“I travel to twirling and judging competitions,” said Conn, who is one of the organizers and helps run the National Baton Twirling Championships at Notre Dame University.