Hannah Moxley is a senior studying sports management at Kennesaw State who has been twirling since she was three years old and performs a twirling routine, often with flaming batons, for each home football game.
The twirler performs during KSU football games’ halftime shows for the student section tossing and twirling batons before lighting them on fire. She then performs tricks while twirling the fiery sticks high into the air and skillfully catching them.
One of her more impressive tricks is holding a baton between her teeth and completing a cartwheel; another is holding up to three batons steady while landing a split.
According to Moxley, “the fire is really not that different from regular twirling;” she simply has to “be careful” and “modify it” from catching the baton’s end to catching it in the middle.
Currently, Moxley choreographs each of her halftime performances herself as there has not been a twirling coach for a couple of years. She improvises a lot and adapts to any wind or other weather Georgia may be experiencing.
Early on in her career – when she was in third grade – Moxley suffered an injury from twirling that affects her to this day: a baton hit her mouth, knocking out two of her front teeth.
Moxley today has two artificial teeth and spoke about them in an interview with a smile on her face, clearly in good spirits and able to laugh about the accident years after. The feature twirler had to undergo a root canal as a result of the incident and exhibits a great spirit and attitude still.
Moxley has suffered minor injuries as she has continued to twirl through her educational years such as being hit in her nose by batons from their great heights, though she reported that common injuries in the sport are “nothing that other sports wouldn’t have.”
She reported that her parents “were always there for” her and that they still come to every home game even though they live four hours away.
Moxley grew up an only child in small-town Jesup, Ga. where twirling was considered a big deal for girls.
On the Majorette Line in high school was where she first began really working with flaming batons, though she began learning during middle school. She worked with up to two flaming batons in high school then upgraded to using three in higher education.
Only a few of the women who twirled with Moxley in high school went on to twirl at their respective universities. Those who did, according to Moxley, were spread out across the state of Georgia at universities including the University of Georgia and Georgia Southern University.
She stated that growing up, majorettes and twirlers were disliked and seen as a “clique,” since the majorettes were a larger group of girls. Since moving on to twirling for KSU, though, Moxley has become a beloved solo performer and has grown connections within the marching band.
The feature twirler, as she is in her last year in college and beginning to think ahead about her career, stated that she would like to come back to KSU to coach and “guide the next twirler,” passing on her iconic legacy.