Flaming batons banned from stadium after majorette scares school officials

Flaming batons -- and anything else afire -- have been banned from the Kinnett Stadium artificial turf after a visiting team's majorette gave Muscogee County School District officials a scare.

At halftime of the Columbus High football team's 21-14 win Thursday night, Marion County senior majorette Haley Hynes wowed the crowd with her fiery routine. During the last 60 seconds of the 8-minute performance, while the band played "El Toro Caliente," Haley exchanged her regular batons for the flaming versions.

And MCSD athletics director Todd Stanfill got $667,256 worth of worry.

That's how much the school district spent on installing artificial turf at Kinnett before the football season. Between the fake blades of grass, the turf's infill contains a mix of sand and crumb rubber, composed of shredded tires, to make the surface stable, uniform and resilient.

Crumb rubber is flammable.

"I typically really enjoy watching the marching bands," Stanfill said with a laugh Friday, "but it was real tough to enjoy that. I was just praying she didn't drop one. But, fortunately, she obviously is very talented, and she didn't."

Marion County band director Josh Milam was amazed for a different reason.

The 2008 Columbus High graduate was excited about returning to Kinnett Stadium, where he played trumpet numerous times with the Blue Devils on natural grass. The flaming batons have been in Haley's routine with Marion County for three years, Milam said, and he couldn't remember a time she dropped one, so he was surprised when the Ledger-Enquirer relayed MCSD's concern.

"I didn't even think about the turf being installed at Kinnett this year," Milam said

No MCSD official mentioned the fire issue to him before or after Haley's performance, Milam said. In fact, he added, "She got a great round of applause."

Haley also said she didn't know her performance had sparked concern until the L-E interviewed her Friday after school, where she is ranked No. 1 in the senior class and is on track to be Marion County's 2016 valedictorian.

Asked how she feels about the ban, Haley said, "I totally respect their decision."

Twirling flaming batons isn't unusual for Haley, 17, because it was the way she was taught in Missouri, where she lived before moving to Georgia and joining the Marion County band as a freshman. She became the band's first majorette in 30 years, and she has taught other baton twirlers to build the program, said her mother, Ellen Hynes. Haley, however, had to wait a year for the school to get the proper insurance before she again could twirl with fire.

Ellen prepares Haley's flaming batons away from the field and spectators. She soaks the padded ends in kerosene and wraps them with tinfoil. About 30 seconds before the proper time in the routine, Ellen unwraps the batons, lights the ends and hands them to Haley, who is sprayed with water to make her as flame retardant as possible.

Although the flames haven't seriously burned Haley, they have prompted her to reach for the aloe vera Ellen ensures to have handy.

"It's never very bad," Haley said. "It's more like accidentally touching a hot stove."

The reward is worth the risk, Haley insists.

"I like to hear the crowd's reaction," she said. "They go, 'Ooh, she's got fire!' That makes everything worthwhile."

So how about eating the fire for her next trick?

"I think we draw the line there," her mother said.

This was Haley's first performance on artificial turf since Marion County won the 2013 Class A state championship in the Georgia Dome, she said. Georgia Dome officials told band directors that fire wasn't allowed on their artificial turf, Milam said. And now, Stanfill said, that will be the policy at Kinnett.

"We'll be proactive and give people advance notice," he said. "We'll send it out to the teams and ask them to pass it along to their band directors."

Mark Rice, 706-576-6272. Follow him on Twitter@MarkRiceLE.

This story was originally published September 18, 2015 at 5:28 PM with the headline "Flaming batons banned from stadium after majorette scares school officials ."