Trip to national Bee eye-opener for local family

The local champ might appear in cameos taped for the final rounds.

YOUNGSTOWN — John Umble may not have made it into the final rounds of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., but that didn’t dampen his spirits.

Umble, 12, the 2007 Vindicator Regional Spelling Bee champ, was among 287 competitors at the national event this week.

He was eliminated in the preliminary rounds Wednesday morning, with only about 100 spellers advancing to the quarterfinals Wednesday afternoon.

“I’m totally fine,” he said afterward, speaking by telephone from Washington.

“Oh yes, for sure,” he said, when asked if he intended to compete in the Vindicator bee next year. He’ll have two more years of eligibility and could win another trip to the national event.

The bee

There are two phases to the preliminary rounds, one an oral spelling in which John had no problem with the word fanfare.

The second is a 25-word multiple-choice test.

John scored 13 correct answers in that round, not enough to advance. There were a lot of words he’d never seen before, he said.

The bee semifinals and finals will be aired live, and local viewers who tune in may get a chance to see John in some cameos taped for the event.

He was interviewed five times by film crews for those cameos, said his father, James Umble.

ESPN will air cameos at 10 and 11:30 a.m. today while ABC will air its cameos around 8 tonight.

“It’s been a lot of fun for him,” the elder Umble said.

Enjoying the sights

The most fun, other than the bee, was the Memorial Day picnic at Turkey Run Park for all bee participants and their families, John said, adding that he made some new friends among other bee participants.

They visited the Smithsonian Institution on Tuesday and John said he hoped to get in a visit to the National Zoo before he, his father and his mother, Kathryn, return to their Poland home early Saturday.

The family planned to do some sightseeing Wednesday afternoon, watch the semifinals and finals today and do some more touring Friday.

“It’s been an eye-opener for us,” his father said.

Although John studied hard and did a lot of preparation work, the family met other children who were spending four or five hours a day just studying for the competition, something James Umble said he didn’t even think was possible.

Kids who were at the event for the second time seemed to have a distinct advantage in terms of knowing what types of words they might expect to see in the competition, he said.

gwin@vindy.com