Shelby Stark, junior at UCM, fronts the Marching Mules with her twirling routine.

WARRENSBURG, Mo.--Shelby Stark, three-time Miss Majorette of Missouri, is in her junior year at UCM, and she fronts the Marching Mules with her twirling routine.

Shelby began twirling when she was only 8 years old.

“I became interested in twirling because my mom was a twirler in high school,” said Shelby.

Her mom started classes for girls who wanted to learn the skills of twirling.

“I was my mom’s first dropout,” said Shelby. “I get frustrated really easy, so when I couldn’t get a trick, I would quit.”

Her college coach, Teresa Uchityl-Etler, got her involved with tryouts for UCM.

“Shelby auditioned for us near the end of her senior year of high school,” said Scott Lubaroff, director of the UCM marching band. “Her performance and competition resume already spoke for itself."

But, to conquer a skill like twirling, Shelby had to practice a lot.

“It didn’t come naturally to me, so when I first started, I would practice two to three times a week,” said Shelby.

The saying practice makes perfect proves to be true in this case.

“Shelby is an amazing talent. She provides great visual impact to the overall performance. She's got fabulous stage presence, technique and dance skills. She's really just very engaging to the audience,” said Lubaroff.

Shelby attracts her own crowd whenever the Marching Mules perform.

“Her family is nearly always in attendance, (as well as) her twirling coach and her twirling students,” said Lubaroff. "Often, other community members from her hometown of Carrollton, Mo., come to the games, and it's not at all uncommon for other twirlers who have seen Shelby perform and want to follow her, to come to our performances just to see her twirl.”

“I’ve seen Shelby’s performances,” said Brianna William. “They are flawless, but they look difficult to do. I would never be able to perform like that in front of that crowd.”

Shelby combats her nerves with thorough preparation.

“I get nervous before every performance,” said Shelby. “I think ‘What if I mess up or what if I don’t catch all my tricks?’ It’s scary. So before every performance, I have to catch all my tricks. If I don’t, then I feel like something is going to go wrong. Then, I hop up and down, telling myself that I can do it, and I’m going to have a good performance,” said Shelby. “I know this sounds weird, but I have to do this little flip thing with my baton. I don’t know why, but it helps reassure me that I’m going to do good.”

Outside of twirling, Shelby keeps busy with her organization, Sigma Sigma Sigma, and school. She is a nursing major and she’s thinking about taking up a minor in photography.

“Photography is something that I started doing my senior year in high school,” said Shelby. “I used to just go out and take pictures on my own; it’s fun for me and it’s easy. I also teach twirling once a week, for a half hour, with a 7-year-old girl named Madeline.”

“Shelby adds a visual appeal to the overall performance that can't be matched,” said Lubaroff. “Shelby has certainly set a very high standard, and when it's time for her to graduate, hers will be very difficult shoes to fill.”