Omaha’s Stepper-ettes baton twirling team takes home world title

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – Representing red, white and blue and now gold too.

“It’s been a big accomplishment because we are here doing World’s, like it’s been a whole journey,” says athlete Lacie Nielsen.

The 58 member squad of the Stepper-ettes International Team is proudly celebrating their brand new title, taking home two golds for both the senior and youth teams at the World Championships in Turin, Italy.

“This was like the Olympics of baton twirling, it’s the highest level of competition that a baton twirler can reach,” says Co-Director Tami Koel. “You’ve got people from all these other countries around you, practicing, counting in different languages, their coaches are coaching in different languages and walking up to that Olympic arena was just a feeling that is indescribable.”

The team competed in the same ice hockey arena from the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. Approximately 12 to 14 countries competed in this year’s World Championships.

Girls on the international team range in age from as young as nine all the way up to 25. Athletes like Ally Riley spend hours at the La Vista studio year round, perfecting the routine.

“Baton twirling does have a big concept of dance, but it’s a little bit harder now that you have a metal stick in your hand. So there’s the risk of getting hurt, hurting others, you have to toss your baton up and do a lot of dancing tricks underneath it,” says Riley.

It’s a family affair at The Steppe Center, with mom Sue starting the business decades ago. Daughter Tami now helps to run the program, with sister Rachel as head choreographer. Their father helps run the business side and their grandmother runs the store.

“They have to give up a lot of things that most young ladies their age don’t have to give up. They gave up time on their phones, they gave up a lot of social time,” says Koel.

Now the largest baton studio in the country, it helps to fill in a large gap where other neighboring cities are lacking, giving more than 400 female athletes an opportunity to shine.

“We do have students that will come in from other cities to be a part of our team. They’ll travel from Lincoln or from Iowa, we love that we welcome them with open arms. We just like to be a place where every single girl feels valued, feels welcome and has the opportunity to be a champion,” says Koel.

It’s also a gateway to earning a college scholarship.

“College twirling is what we’re preparing a lot of these girls for, because there’s scholarships available. We have a lot of students that have gone on to twirl at Division I , Division II schools. Even in Omaha, we have five of them at UNO,” says Koel.

With the new season about to pick up, these ladies are looking to keep the winning momentum going.

“Watching the older girls go off to World’s and win or just perform and I always loved watching them perform. I always looked up to older kids. Now that I am on the senior team I have the younger kids that are looking up to me so it is just a priceless feeling wearing this medal around my neck knowing that all of my years of hard work have paid off,” says Riley.

The Stepper-ettes International team has won the World Championships three times prior: in 2009, 2012 and 2015.

For anyone interested in becoming a part of the Stepper-ettes, girls can start as young as three. Sign ups are going on right now.

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