Lakewood Ranch twirling champ ready to pass the baton

She was 6 years old, and like many girls her age, Tiffany McCoy wanted a crown.

But this had nothing to do with the movies, fantasy or royalty.

It had everything to do with hard work.

At that tender age, Lakewood Ranch's McCoy began twirling at the Bradenton Twirling Academy.

"I thought it was unique," said McCoy, who now is an 18-year-old senior at Lakewood Ranch High School. "And the older girls would come in with crowns and banners."

Eleven years after beginning her pursuit, Greenbrook's McCoy earned not only a crown ... she earned the crown.

She currently is serving a one-year reign as the 2022 Senior Majorette Queen of the Drum Majorettes of America. She earned the title last July at the national competition at the University of South Carolina Aiken.

Photo by Jay Heater

The Senior Majorette Queen competition (15-23 age division) can be compared to a gymnastics competition where the athletes are awarded titles on specific equipment with all the scores adding up to crown an overall champion. That was McCoy when it came to the twirling competition, which also included graded events such as dress modeling, and on-stage and backstage interview sessions. 

"I was the new face of the organization," McCoy said. "You have to talk to everyone, encourage them and help them out. And I love getting to talk."

For her freshman, sophomore and junior years at Lakewood Ranch High School, she was a drum majorette for the Marching Mustangs. However, with the travel associated with being the national representative for the Drum Majorettes of America, combined with her school work, she decided to step away from the Marching Mustangs during her senior year.

"I wanted to step back and enjoy by reign," she said.

In fact, her drum majorette days with a marching band might be over. McCoy is headed to Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

"I am not planning on twirling, but I will look around at all the groups," she said. "But I do want to enjoy just going to the games."

Throughout the years, she has enjoyed competitive twirling more than performing for an audience in front of a marching band.

She still does have one last competitive iron in the fire as she has teamed with Parrish's Ally Carpenter to see if they can win that division at this year's Drum Majorettes of America July 15-19 in Aiken, South Carolina.

Carpenter was fifth in the nation in the Senior Majorette Queen competition last year, so the duo will draw lots of attention going into the competition.

It also will mark the end of her reign.

Since she accomplished her twirling goal, McCoy isn't concerned about missing the sport as she moves forward to meet other life challenges. Her parents, Shannon and Christopher McCoy, said twirling has helped prepare her to meet those challenges.

"It has helped her socially," Christopher McCoy said. "Although she always has been outgoing, it challenges you. It taught her about hard work, and about sticking with something. It taught her perseverance."

Photo by Jay Heater

Shannon McCoy said the exercise needed for twirling was fantastic, and added that her daughter learned time management skills.

"It's balancing a heavy load," she said. "It's a skill that most grown-ups don't have until they are 30."

Shannon McCoy remembers her 6-year-old daughter saying she wanted a crown, but probably didn't expect the 12 years of work to attain it.

She was a twirler herself in high school, although "not like her. I was just average."

Some family trivia is that Tiffany McCoy's grandmother, Pat Hearne, was a Mustang majorette for her high school in Hollywood Florida. Shannon McCoy was a Mustang majorette in high school at Downers Grove, Illinois, and Tiffany McCoy has been a Mustang majorette at Lakewood Ranch High.

Neither mom or grandma did any competitive twirling.

When Tiffany McCoy began twirling at 6, she didn't even know her mom or grandma had been twirlers. She was just looking for a sport to join and she followed a friend who liked twirling.

By sixth grade, Tiffany McCoy admitted she was feeling burned out and she was close to quitting because she had a lot of school work. Her parents always had been supportive, but they weren't pushing her hard to continue. She said that pressure came from her friends in the twirling club and their parents.

Eventually, she decided to continue.

She did have to give up certain opportunities, such as doing more in her role as youth service coordinator at Bayside Community Church in Lakewood Ranch. At school she is a member of the Senior Advisory Board and the yearbook committee and she still likes running as a hobby.

Her parents had to make sacrifices as well as competitions were held in Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Florida. Each of the twirling classes often required its own costume, so there was that expense.

But as Tiffany McCoy prepared for a photo shoot, her mom happily helped her attach her crown at their Greenbrook home. Her dad watched the two of them with a smile.

"I always encouraged her," he said. "I knew she was great at it."

Her neighbors did, too.

Tiffany McCoy often would be in the street in front of their home practicing. Sometimes it even meant throwing up the baton with the ends on fire.

"I never got burned," she said. "But I did get some soot marks (on her clothes). There definitely is a lot of hand-eye coordination involved."

Her dad said it was entertaining for those driving down the street.

"When she was in the street, she would stop cars," he said.