Bee speller from Valley eliminated

By Elise Franco

The Vindicator’s entrant narrowly missed the National Spelling Bee semifinals.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — John Umble was eliminated from the Scripps National Spelling Bee, but he knows he’s still a winner.

Umble, a 14-year-old student at Willow Creek Learning Center in Boardman, has been to the national bee in Washington, D.C., twice and won The Vindicator Regional Spelling Bee in 2007 and 2009.

He made it through both live rounds in Wednesday’s national competition, correctly spelling “permanent” and “castellan” but was eliminated after the score for the first round was tallied.

In the first round, each speller is given a computerized test and asked to spell 50 words for a maximum of 25 points. Umble scored a total of 26 points — 20 points in the first round and three points for each word correctly spelled in the live rounds. His father, Jim Umble, said the cutoff to move onto the semifinal round was 28 points.

Jim Umble said the cut narrowed the contestants from nearly 300 to 41.

“This is my last year here, so I am a little [disappointed],” Umble said. “But I think I did my best.”

Umble said he felt better prepared this year than he was for the 2007 national bee. He said that during the school year he studied between 30 and 45 minutes each day but recently spent up to an hour and a half studying.

“I did get to study a bit more. The last few days I studied most of the day,” he said. “I have to say that it was quite a bit harder.”

Umble said no amount of preparation will relieve stress and nerves when it comes time to take the stage.

“It’s very stressful and nerve-wracking, but at the same time it makes you grow in character from being able to see how all your studying paid off,” he said. “It really makes you feel good.”

John’s father said he and his wife, Kathryn, couldn’t be more proud of their son’s accomplishment.

“He had such good command of the words,” he said. “He’s an amazing speller, but you know how bees go. It’s just the luck of the draw in what words they chose.”

Despite his father’s compliments, Umble stayed humble, saying he was far from the best speller in the competition.

“I’m very impressed. A lot of the contestants have been there for three or four years. They’re very, very skilled,” he said. “The second-place winner from last year is here, and I do believe that he might come out on top this year.”

Forty-one of the record 293 spellers survived the preliminary rounds Wednesday and will compete in the semifinals starting this morning. The finals of the 82nd Scripps National Spelling Bee take place tonight.

The winner gets more than $40,000 in cash and prizes.

The competition began Tuesday with a written test. That score was combined with Wednesday’s oral rounds to produce the semifinalists.

efranco@vindy.com