For seven years, freshman Susan Garabedian has dedicated her free time to baton twirling and has been awarded with countless titles and medals that many high-school athletes can only dream about. In her eyes, twirling demands as much time, effort, strength and dedication as any other sport.

Every year Garabedian attends the week-long AYOP USA National

Championships at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. with her team, the Wheaton Majorettes. Last year alone, she won six gold medals in six team and individual events, competing against twirlers from all over the country. She also won Miss Majorette of the mid-Atlantic in 2004, and she and her duet partner, Brittanie Everhart, recently won Maryland State duet champions in May 2005.

“It takes a lot of time and dedication,” she said, “It’s harder than it looks. People that do it have to really want to do it.”

Not only is she talented as an individual, but the Wheaton Majorettes are the reigning world champions for baton twirling. In 2003, they won the World Championship Competition in Marseilles, France.

“I didn’t go because I wasn’t old enough, but our team is one of the best teams [in the world], Garabedian said.

Her team practices seven days a week and Garabedian attends practices on five of those days because of outside obligations, such as her schoolwork.

“Twirling is a sport,” she said, “A lot of people say it isn’t, but it is. It combines ballet, gymnastics and dance with baton twirling. You have to be good at a lot of things to excel.”

Garabedian tried many other sports like soccer, tennis and basketball before she finally settled on twirling.

“I started because I was kind of bored and wasn’t being challenged. I looked in a catalog, saw twirling and decided to try it out,” she said. It looks like she made a good choice.