July 5, 2012
Bolingbrook High School senior Nicci Colucy with her Midwest Regional Baton Twirling trophies.
Bolingbrook High School's own Nicci Colucy is headed to the National Baton Twirling Association's national championship.
Colucy, the featured twirler for the Raiders Marching Band, placed first in solo and second in X-Strut, while finishing as runner-up in the overall competition.
The national competition will take place June 15 through 19 at the University of Notre Dame.
Colucy has been twirling since she was five years old. She is best known for by Bolingbrook area fans for her Raider Marching Band fire baton & canon trick during the Raider football games (which you can see in the video).
She is currently speaking with band director about auditions for feature twirler positions in spring 2013. She will graduate next year. In college, she plans to major in sports studies and music education.
In addition to twirling, Colucy has a long list of accomplishments, including: 3.0 GPA, Raider Marching Band, Jazz Band, Thespian, Student Council, Dance, serving at New Song Church, Jr. Olympic Gold Medalist, Midwest Regional Champion and member of the traveling AAU competition twirling team, the Westernettes, in Addison for more than six years.
None of these were supposed to happen, according to a bio put together by her family. At two years of age, Colucy was diagnosed with an auditory disability called CAPD (Central Auditory Processing Disorder).
"She could hear normally but she couldn’t process the information because her ears and brain didn’t fully sync together," the release said.
"This confusion was a big challenge. Nicci had a hard time learning how to speak, listening to her teachers, reading and talking with friends. She 'acted out' a lot because she had a difficult time communicating."
Because of early intervention by Valley View School District 365U, Colucy was able to attend regular kindergarten with her peers.
"That wasn’t supposed to happen for Nicci," the release said. "Her accomplishments as an honor student, gold medalist twirler, percussionist and trombone player weren’t suppose to happen either. Most kids don’t get the diagnosis early; most kids don’t have the parents and the awesome VVSD teacher’s support."
Colucy won a spokesmodel competition in 2007 for CAPD and since then has been raising awareness for the disorder. She includes it as her platform when competing in twirling and scholarship competitions throughout Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio.