The Tyrone Star-Lite Twirlers, an independent majorette group based in Tyrone, will debut their 2019 show entitled Come Sail Away at their first competition of the season at Bedford Area High School this Saturday, February 2nd.

The Star-Lite Twirlers are an indoor group consisting of students from Tyrone, Bellwood and Altoona.

There are two groups twirling under the Tyrone Star-Lite Twirler name, a senior group and a junior group.

On the 2019 senior group there are a total of 14 middle and high school students.

The girls and instructors have put in hours of work in preparation for their upcoming season.

One competition to mention is the annual “home show” in the Tyrone High school gym on February 23, 2019.

Performances by dance teams, color guard groups, majorette groups, and indoor percussion groups, including the Tyrone High School Indoor Percussion group, will take place. Since the Indoor percussion is affiliated with the school, when they compete at the Tyrone competition they will receive a score but no award. However, the Star-Lite Twirlers are not affiliated with the school so they will compete for an award and score.

“We’re really excited for the season to begin,” says head instructor Marcia Fink, “the girls have worked really hard.”

Later in the season the Star-Lite Twirlers will travel to Huntingdon, Westmont, Glendale, Windber, Bald Eagle, Johnstown Homer Center and eventually Wildwood, New Jersey to compete. The complete season schedule can be found by clicking this link.

The 2019 Chapter 11 Championships will be held in Tyrone on April 27th.

“We are two time champions (at TIA Championships in Wildwood) and went undefeated last year, this is a little added pressure that adds to the excitement of competition,” said Fink, “win or lose we are a team and we will grow together throughout the season. We are a family.”

The twirling group will compete under the Independent Regional Twirlers category, competing against multiple other groups throughout the year.

Indoor groups are placed into categories, Scholastic or Independent.

Scholastic is solely school involved, allowing kids from 13-18 years of age to compete. Independent teams allow anyone from the ages of 3-21 to compete on their team, and exist because sometimes there are schools without teams to compete. The percussion groups can also compete stationary or marching, stationary being the group stands completely still while performing.

All groups competing look forward to the TIA Atlantic Coast Championship that takes place in Wildwood, New Jersey.

The competition lasts from May 2nd to May 5th, and teams from all over the east coast travel to compete.

During prelims, the teams compete to try and land themselves in a top four spot, because only the top four highest scoring teams continue on to the finals. There, the teams will do the show one final time, and will be awarded accordingly. The Tyrone Star-Lite Twirlers have taken the gold for the past two years, and are coming into the 2019 season with the determination for a third.