Thu, May 29, 2008 - 7:08 AM

Thu, May 29, 2008 - 8:16 AM
We've got our first misspelled word.

Mee Jin Park of American Samoa got a tough word: dentifrice.

He spelled it: dentifriss.

What the heck is a dentifrice? It’s a powder, paste, or liquid for cleaning the teeth.

Park isn’t necessarily out of the game. Spellers get three points in this round for spelling a word right.

To become a quarterfinalist, the results of this first round of spelling are combined with written test. Quarterfinalists will be announced before noon today.

-- Amy Dominello

Thu, May 29, 2008 - 8:06 AM

And we’re off!

James Bailey of Scottsboro, Ala., was the first speller up.

His word: magenta.

And he got it!

-- Amy Dominello

Thu, May 29, 2008 - 7:50 AM

The bee kids are lining up on the stage now.

There are enough parents snapping photos right now that the spellers would be blinded by the light.

The parents and the grandparents in the crowd appear to be more nervous than the spellers.

I heard one grandmother comment about how nervous she was and the bee hasn’t even started yet.

-- Amy Dominello

Wed, May 28, 2008 - 10:12 PM

As you can see from my bio on the right hand side of the page, I have no business writing about a spelling bee.

Here’s the scoop on my spelling bee tale of woe:

I’m not quite sure how I ended up in this particular bee, but it’s clear there were no requirements to participate.

The bee was held at the local mall. I easily made it through the first round. But the second word was rough.

When I got onstage, I thought I lucked out. The word was “mommy.”

These judges don’t know who they are dealing with, I thought to myself. I was a pretty good speller and “mommy” would be a piece of cake.

And so I spit it out, expecting to wow the audience with my obvious smarts: M-O-M-M-E.

“I’m sorry,” the announcer said. “But that’s incorrect.”

I was shocked. In my mind, I spelled it correctly: M-O-M-M-Y. How could this be?

But it was and as I dejectedly got off the stage, I was greeted by my own “mommy” with a look of puzzlement and sympathy. She didn’t laugh then, although we have laughed about it many times since.

Moral of the story for tomorrow’s spellers: Too much confidence can be a bad thing. And no matter how badly you screw up in a spelling bee, you can always grow up to be a reporter.

-- Amy Dominello

Tomorrow will bring the first day of action in Washington D.C. Round two will begin at 8:00 a.m, and while the bee won't be televised, results will be posted live at http://www.spellingbee.com. You can view the quarterfinals beginning at 2:00 p.m. at http://www.espn360.com.

Remember that the spellers have already been given a 50-word test on the internet. This, along with Round 2 spellings, will determine if they advance to Round 3. The top 80 competitors will move on to the broadcast rounds of the bee.

Many of the Round 3 words will be words you've seen before. Words from last year included prospectus, tyrannical, and mausoleum. Some words will be seemingly easier than others, but the Bee officials take into account the availability of the word in everyday life and its phonetic difficulty.

Round four typically brings the "Scripps bloodbath." While only 11 spellers were eliminated in round three last year, 35 were dropped in round four. Round four words tend to separate the contenders from the rest of the field. Last year brought words such as epicondylic, zwieback, and oubliette among others.

While these words may seem unfamiliar to you, remember that spellers have a wealth of resources provided to them by Scripps. The consolidated word list, a compilation of all words given in previous years, contains over 80% of the words in any given year's list. However, the bee gods occasionally throw in a word never seen in competition before, and this will throw even many veteran spellers for a loop in round four.


Tomorrow I will explain more parts of the Bee, including the time limit placed on spellers and the important questions many ask before spelling a word. Hopefully, I'll also have a chance to post interesting behind-the-scenes information and profile a few more favorites this year along with real-time blogging on current happenings.

Enjoy the bee, and I'll be with you early in the morning as we follow this year's quest for a champion.

-Josh Dawsey

Matthew Evans is a roller coaster fanatic.

In his free time from studiously preparing for the spelling bee, he drags his parents to amusement parks throughout the country to ride the tallest, nastiest, and biggest roller coasters he can find.

Evans, a five-time repeater at the national level, is considered as a favorite to take the trophy home this year. 2008 will be his last year of eligibility, and he says he'll relish the days of playing outside instead of being buried in bee materials.

I had the opportunity to work a little with Evans over the years. Here's what I can tell you from my experiences: The kid is one of the most down-to-earth, genuine people I've ever known. He's always been very grateful for the little help I've provided him, and he's always completed any task asked of him to improve. While I haven't had the opportunity to work with him in preparation for this year's bee, I know his mother very well and I can assure you he is very prepared.

His mother, Helen, reiterated that while he was interested in studying, he was going to take part in the normal activities of Bee Week instead of holing himself up in a room with words. On Tuesday, Evans went to the Great American Barbecue, an event hosted by the national bee that allows spellers to enjoy recreation and fellowship with other spellers.

Evans is already once a champion. He won the Reader's Digest Word Power Challenge on the national level, garnering him a $25,000 scholarship and media exposure.

Below is a link to an interesting article concerning Evans and fellow fifth-year participant Tia Thomas written by Joseph White.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080528/ap_on_re_us/spelling_bee

Year after year, the Scripps National Spelling Bee is becoming more of an international event.

When Jody Anne-Maxwell from Jamaica became the first non-American winner in 1998, the bee's international flair was discussed at great length. However, the bee's international flair is apparent now more than ever.

In this year's contest, spellers hail from Jamaica, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, South Korea, Ghana, the Bahamas, and American territories Guam, American Samoa, and Puerto Rico. This year marks the first for spellers from South Korea, Germany, or Ghana.

In 2005, a New Zealand film crew followed their country's first-ever participant in the Bee. Even though she was eliminated fairly quickly, their documentary on the American spelling bee drummed up significant interest in New Zealand.

Though it could be considered a disadvantage for international spellers to participate in such an American event, there have been success stories. Canadians Finola Hackett and Nate Gartke were runners-up from 2006 and 2007, respectively, and as the bee continues to grow into an international event, it's likely more countries will only be involved in the future.

Should other countries be involved? Sound off in the comment box.
-Josh Dawsey

Wed, May 28, 2008 - 6:10 PM

Baron Fenwick of Boone, N.C., was shocked when he was named a regional bee winner in March.

And the eighth-grader at Green Valley School said the reality that he’s at the National Spelling Bee is still sinking in.

“Just looking around the hotel, I feel like I shouldn’t be here,” Fenwick said. “But I’m glad I am.”

Watch Baron talk about how he’s prepared for the bee in the video below.

-- Amy Dominello

Wed, May 28, 2008 - 3:58 PM

Mariel Andersen doesn’t want to sound arrogant.

But the 13-year-old from Charlottesville thinks she did really well on the preliminary tests for the bee. (Here’s a story on Mariel from Sunday’s Daily Progress.)

But don’t worry about Mariel, an eighth grader at Jackson P. Burley Middle School. She has plans to attend a dance on Friday night if she doesn’t make the final round.

“If it doesn’t work out there are other things she has to look forward to,” said her mother, Elizabeth Andersen.

-- Amy Dominello

A speller many analysts predicted to win the 2008 spelling bee isn't in attendance this year.

Samir Patel, a Dallas speller who came in third place at the age of nine, has been a force in the spelling bee scene over the past five years. While he was never able to win the national contest, he was the runner-up in 2005 and was asked to speak at the 2007 opening ceremony of the bee. Part of "American Bee" by James Maguire chronicled his spelling efforts, and he was often featured on national television in game shows and other events.

His early exit in the fifth round of the 2007 bee brought a collective gasp from the audience, and many were once again shocked this year to not see Patel's name on the list of spellers.

Patel, famous for his on-stage emotions, is now too old to participate in the bee, and while he says he misses the people, he doesn't miss the thousands of hours he studied for annual participation or the heartbreak that came along with losing.

He is currently taking college classes and is involved in politics and science research while living a seemingly normal life outside of the spelling bee.

If you want to learn more about Patel, there was a very in-depth profile written by Elizabeth Merrill on ESPN's website this afternoon. The link is provided below.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=3414046

-Josh Dawsey

May 28, 3:20 p.m.

ESPN's Erin Andrews talks about going from sports to spelling and how she prepares to cover the Bee in a story in today's Tampa Tribune.

"The cool part of this assignment is getting to know the stories behind these kids who have been studying for years and can spell words I've never heard of," she says. "The competition is intense and it can get emotional, so I have to be mindful of that when I do the interviews."

For the full story go here.

THE BIG BEE
Scripps National Spelling Bee
•11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday on ESPN
•8 to 10 p.m. Friday on ABC.com.

--Neil Simon

May 27, 3:13 p.m.

At least four production trucks are lining the street outside the Grand Hyatt, where hundreds of would-be spelling champions are preparing to compete in the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The power generator on the corner is larger than many apartments I've seen in the Washington area.

The ABC/ESPN crews who typically run cable for sporting events and the occasional lumberjack contest have got to be wondering who declared spelling a sport fit for TV.

I already bumped into one nervous parent. Thirteen-year-old Matthew Evans from New Mexico is the only speller from his state and get this -- his dad said this was his fifth time in the Bee.

-Neil Simon