“Coach Cheryl” Osborn has been teaching baton twirling for nearly 60 years, including 19 years with the City of Westminster Parks and Recreation Department.
Westminster native Cheryl Osborn started twirling when she was 10 and coaching when she was 15.
For nearly 60 years, Cheryl Osborn has been helping children have fun, develop poise and self-confidence, and improve their fitness, flexibility and hand-eye coordination through the sport of baton twirling.
“It’s my passion,” Osborn said of the sport that she got involved in when she was 10 years old. “I was bashful and it was good for me and I see that in some of our students. They learn that they can get out there and twirl their baton. They develop confidence doing something they love and enjoy.”
During the annual Westy Fest on August 8, the City of Westminster honored Osborn for the 19 years she has spent coaching youngsters through Westminster’s Parks and Recreation Department.
Osborn started teaching baton when she was 15, about the same time she became a twirler at Westminster High School, performing at parades, pep rallies, football and basketball games. She went on to twirl for the Denver Broncos professional football team as a member of the Broncettes during the 1959-60 season.
Since then, she has coached hundreds of athletes, first with Marian Matherly, then in the garage of her Westminster home where she started The Osborn Twirlers (which has evolved into Colorado Twirls), and since 1997 with the City of Westminster Parks and Recreation Department. She is past president and current awards chairman for the Colorado Baton Council, a non-profit organization that hosts local twirling competitions and clinics.
Cheryl Osborn’s baton twirling students performed at two Metropolitan State University basketball halftimes earlier this year.
Osborn’s students have performed in many parades and entertained at many community events, from Westy Fest to Metropolitan State University basketball games. Her twirlers have won state, regional and national twirling titles. But most importantly, they have developed life skills – including self-discipline, time management and team work – that have helped them in many ways outside the sport of baton twirling.
Madelaine Schmidt, a student of Cheryl Osborn, twirls three fire batons at the 2015 Westy Fest. Schmidt is the current Colorado Solo, 2-Baton and 3-Baton Grand Champion.
Westminster twirlers Kylee Nazarenus, Liz Anne Soeth, Laura Poe, Ryann Zechman and Rachel Poe perform at Westy Fest. They are coached by Cheryl Osborn.
“Baton twirling has definitely taught me perseverance,” said former Westminster twirler Natalie Miller, who is now a senior at the University of Colorado, pursuing a double major in biochemistry and molecular, cellular and developmental biology. “One of the first lessons I learned from Cheryl when I started competing was that no matter what happened, I just needed to pick up the baton and keep going. Cheryl really instilled that attitude in us and it has kept me going through all sorts of challenges–both in baton and life!”
“Cheryl is without a doubt one of my favorite people,” said Christine McNulty, another former twirler who is now a teacher at Westminster High School. “I met her when I was about eight when my mom signed me up for baton twirling classes at the Westminster Rec Center. She quickly became more than a baton coach, doing things such as picking my sister and I up from school to go to practice, going on road trips with us for competitions, and comforting us when we had too many drops in our routines. She is one of the kindest, most selfless individuals I have ever met, and I know she makes a lasting impact on all her twirling students.”
Cheryl Osborn, center in red, with some of her current and past twirlers after she was honored by the City of Westminster at Westy Fest.
Contributed by Anna Osborn Dolan, Cheryl Osborn’s daughter and fellow baton twirling coach.