PASSING THE BATON

Former Adamson drill team members bridge the generation gap

STORY BY MEGHAN RINEY

When former Adamson High School Leopardette Sue Roberts, class of ’61, was asked to dust off her drill team baton for a reunion performance this spring, she never could have predicted the impact that twirling performance would have.

The result was Adamson High School’s drill team director, Kelly Bates, and principal, Evangeline Kircher, asking Roberts and the other self-proclaimed “vintage Leopardettes” to teach the current drill team the art of the twirl, resurrecting a 31-year-old Adamson tradition.

It all started in April when Leopardette alumni Deanna SackettVenable had the idea of reuniting former Leopardettes for a surprise twirling performance at the 11th annual Adamson all-class reunion.

“It was just like riding a bike,” Roberts says. “None of us had ever thought we would twirl again.”

After six weeks of rehearsal, the vintage ’dettes took the stage, brought down the house, and caught the eyes of current Leopardettes.

“During rehearsals in the auditorium, we noticed some members of the drill team would come to watch,” Roberts says. “Each rehearsal would bring more girls.They wanted to know what it was like to be on the team all those years ago; they wanted to hear our stories and know what we did.”

Roberts and the other vintage ’dettes told the girls how the team had twirled batons from 1950–81, how they had led the Cotton Bowl parade, and how the leaders of the Leopardettes had twirled fire batons.

“We didn’t know the history,” Leopardettes senior captain Jocelyn Sarmiento says. “We didn’t know they twirled, and we were so excited when we found out!”

Once Leopardette director Kelly Bates saw how excited her girls were about twirling, she says she “couldn’t think of any reason not to bring it back.” This summer, the vintage ’dettes will teach the current team the basics of baton twirling for use in their 2011 half-time routines.

“It has really been great for all of us it’s incredible exercise, and all of our doctors are thrilled we’re doing it,” Roberts says.

The vintage ’dettes hope that this opportunity opens the door to a larger mentoring opportunity.

“My Leopardette experience was not just about twirling; it was a lifestyle full of lofty goals, ideals, behavior and grade expectations, and accomplishments,” Roberts says. “The Leopardettes was a safe place where I could learn the skills I needed later in adult life.”

“Being a Leopardette was like being Miss America,” says Roberts. “Now we are reliving the dream. Never in a million years did I think this could happen.”

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Collegiateminds

Principal GayleFergusonSmith , counselor LenoraBrown , facilities supervisor LasandraColeman and office manager BlancaVasquez checked up on construction of Oak Cliff’s newest high school, the Kathlyn Joy Gilliam Collegiate Academy at Beckley and Illinois. The 110,000-square-foot school costs $22 million, from 2008 bond election funds. It will serve 350 students. The program is geared toward kids who would be first-generation college students.

Thepin Show Goeson

After a one-year absence, Oak Cliff entrepreneur JulieMcCullough Kim will return to Dallas to present The Pin Show, a fashion show which spotlights independent designers whose clothes are made locally. BrianEmbry , owner and director of the Ross Akard Gallery, is the show’s new executive director. The event is set for Feb. 23 at the Fairmont Dallas and will award more than $2,000 in grants to designers to use in furthering their fashion businesses. Visit thepinshow.typepad.com for details.