When's the last time you thought about baton twirling?

I thought about it yesterday for the first time in - I'm sure - many years. I was listening to the radio and a singer was talking about being from a small town and how she had just been back to act as Grand Marshall for a parade she remembers marching in with her dance class as a small child.
This reminded me of parades I remember as a small child in Big Stone Gap, Va. I remember ranks of little girls twirling batons, dropping them, picking them up. It's a nice memory. And it led me to wonder what ever happened to baton twirling. I have four kids. Two of them are girls. I don't think they've ever owned a baton and I'm not sure they'd know what one is.
Today - literally and truly the next day - I see this on the front page of a section of the local paper:

Baton twirling: Glitz, no glory

That kind of think makes me a little nervous.