Imagine this sentence in Dean DeVore’s voice: “Your National Champions, the Penn State Blue Band’s Touch of Blue Majorettes!”

Indeed, the Touch of Blue Majorettes — or, as they call themselves, the Jettes — brought home several awards from the National Baton Twirling Association competition this summer, among them a first-place finish in the “Collegiate Majorette Dance Twirl Teams” category.

In addition, the Jettes placed second in the “Collegiate Majorette Line Half Time Show Twirl” category, one of two categories (the other being “dance”) in which the Jettes have enjoyed immense success over the years. By “immense success”, I mean that they have placed either first or second in one or the other category every year since 2004.

Matt Freeman, feature twirler for the majorettes, garnered a rather impressive slew of individual awards (a total of SIX individual championship titles), among them the title of “2012 Collegiate Solo Champion”. Speaking of the significance of these honors to him, Matt Freeman told Penn State Live that “[bringing] the collegiate title back home to Penn State is an amazing opportunity,” and that “this was a perfect year to come out on top and represent Penn State in a positive light”.

It goes without saying that Matt Freeman and the Touch of Blue Majorettes deserve much respect for their accomplishments this summer. You can cheer them on starting September 1^st at “Tailgreat”, then alongside the rest of the Blue Band during the pregame, halftime, and postgame performances during the Nittany Lions’ season opener.