Ella McDaniel leads the Hawkeye Marching Band as its Golden Girl, the main featured twirler. She’s finishing her fourth and final season leading HMB. She grew up dreaming of doing this, starting twirling after seeing a group of twirlers at a dance recital at four years old. “I saw the twirlers and I was obviously just so amazing at what they were doing,” said McDaniel. “I had no idea what was happening, but I knew I wanted to do it, and spend my life doing it.”