About Jill
Jill began baton
twirling at the age of 4 in Fair Oaks, California. As she developed her twirling skills she became a
member of the California Elite V, National Champions in dance-twirl and twirl team events. Upon moving to Oregon she
contniuned to progress eventually becoming Oregon Grand Champion from 1983 to 1988, specializing in two and three
baton events.
Continuing to progress with her twirling skills, she became the USTA U.S Open National Champion four
times in Two Baton and Three Baton events. For winning finals night in 1986, 1989 and 1992 Jill went on an exhibition
tour in Japan with her fellow USTA Champions as goodwill ambassadors to promote the sport of baton twirling in that
country. Later she became interested in the sport of juggling, eventually winning the Silver Medal at the 1993
International Juggling Association's annual competition in Portland, Oregon.
In 1995 Jill received the Ben Linder award for Most Inspirational Juggler. Later she was offered an opportunity to
combine baton, dance, and juggling as a performer with LUMA, an illuminated performing arts theatre group which at
that time was located in Madison, Wisconsin. While pursuing her college course of study, Jill served as the featured
twirler for the both the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Oregon and has performed at several
bowl games, including the 1994 Orange Bowl halftime show. Jill currently holds a B.A in Speech-Language Pathology
and a M.Ed. in Therapeutic Recreation. In her spare time she enjoys reading, traveling with her husband and passing
along her twirling skills to her fraternal twins.
