Jessica Morlan, the 2026 College Miss Majorette of America, had a love for twirling long before she ever picked up a baton. For three generations, the sport has connected the women in her family.
“If my grandma didn’t do baton twirling, and then if she didn't get my mom into it, then I probably wouldn't be where I am today,” Jessica said.
Jessica was born in Thomson, but has roots in Oglethorpe County through her mother and grandmother. She started twirling at 3 years old, and her mother, Becky Morlan, noticed her inclination right away.
“I could tell that Jessica just had a natural talent,” Becky said. “By the time she was about 8 years old, that’s when we realized she was really, really good.”
Becky, who was born in Crawford and graduated from Oglethorpe County High School in 1990, was a competitive twirler herself. She got her start through her mother, Pat Wilcox, who was a majorette and now lives in Lexington.
“My mom's really the one who has taught me the most about the baton twirling,” Jessica said. “It’s just crazy to think that she was in the same place that I’ve been in, but in different parts of our life.”
Jessica, a junior at the University of South Carolina studying public relations, said one of her earliest memories was getting to twirl at high school games when her father was the band director at Thomson High School. She said she felt like the “coolest person ever.”
“I don't really know anything besides just having baton twirling being the center of my life,” Jessica said.
Katy Wilkins, who is from Crawford, and her mother, Polly Fleming, also share a special connection with the Morlans.
Fleming has taught twirling and the Starlet Twirlers, through the Oglethorpe County Recreation Department, for more than 45 years. She taught Becky.
Wilkins deeply admired Becky, having grown up looking up to her as a young girl. So, when Becky brought Jessica in for her first few classes, Wilkins eagerly accepted.
That sparked a long friendship.
“She’s like a kid to me, a little sister,” Wilkins said. “She always will be, even when she’s done with twirling. I expect she and I to be friends for a long, long time.”
Wilkins, like Becky, noticed early on that Jessica was special.
Even when she was a toddler, Jessica would go home after each lesson, practice what she had learned and return ready to move on to the next skill, something Wilkins said wasn’t common for a child that young.
“She was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and ready to learn, and she just kind of was a sponge and soaked it all in,” Wilkins said.
Baton twirling took up a lot of time in Jessica’s life.
During the school year, she spent 2-3 hours after school and around five hours on weekends practicing twirling, sometimes at the rec department in Oglethorpe County. During the summer, it was nearly 6-7 hours a day.
It was only as Jessica got older that she started to feel pressure. When she was younger, she said all she cared about was having fun. But when she reached high school, she struggled with the competitiveness that came with the sport.
But she regained that confidence again in college, where she practices with the band most weekdays and does additional individual practice during the week. She also teaches baton twirling at camps during the summer.
“This past year, I really tried to focus more on having fun and just being myself as I perform,” Jessica said. “I feel like that’s gotten me the best result.”
Jessica will travel to Italy for the world championships in 2027.
She said winning the 2026 Miss College Majorette of America in July was a “surreal” experience. She remembers running to her mom and sister afterwards and hugging them.
“I cried,” Becky said. “This was her ultimate goal that she had really, really been working towards for such a long time.”
Wilkins was similarly touched. She was sitting on the couch with her husband around 11:30 p.m., when the text arrived, stating Jessica had won.
“I just, I started crying, and I’m not a person to cry, but it was just like this huge release of … she finally got what she deserved, and she did it. Not me, not anybody else. She did it.”