The Bay State Summer and Winter Games are organized annually by the Massachusetts Amateur Sports Foundation. The Bay State Summer Games are an Olympic-Style Sports Festival that allows its participants to not only have a great experience in their sport, but to take in all the other competitions that the Games' offer. 2005 marks the 24th anniversary of the Bay State Summer Games. What started as an event with 300 participants in 4 sports, has grown to include almost 7,000 athletes in 25 sports!
This yearΓÇÖs sporting events included baton twirling for the first time. Forty-six twirlers participated in any of four team and individual events on Saturday, July 16, 2005 at Umass-Boston. The sport provided a demonstration during the GamesΓÇÖ Opening Ceremony and met with great enthusiasm from the crowd as three of the stateΓÇÖs top competitors displayed a variety of different baton twirling events, including solo 1-baton, 2-baton, 3-baton, and duet. Most of the attendees at the Opening Ceremony had never before seen baton twirling ΓÇ£live,ΓÇ¥ or, had only witnessed show twirling, which can be vastly different from todayΓÇÖs competitive-style.
Athletes who participated in this yearΓÇÖs Games included members of the following Massachusetts twirling clubs: Belchertown Twirlers, Belchertown; City of Champions, Brockton; Gangi Bay State Strutters, Woburn; Ocean State Twirlers, N. Attleborough; Suburbanettes, Chelmsford; and Wanapanaquins, Saugus. The athlete/performers for the Opening Ceremony were Jamie Kaseta, twirler at the University of Miami, Alyssa Kane, Senior Miss Majorette of Massachusetts and Jordan Foster, Pre-teen Miss Majorette of Massachusetts. The baton twirling coordinator for the Games is Tracey Gangi. Go to www.baystategames.com for results and pictures of the Opening Ceremony.
