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Calm Boardman speller takes national stage today
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.
On his first trip to the nation’s capital, Boardman Center Intermediate School sixth-grader Santino Slip-kovich was surrounded by Memorial Day crowds, not to mention nearly 600 tweens and their families.
By Thursday, the 12-year-old could be one of 50 grade-schoolers to appear on national television, competing for $50,000 and singular honors in the Scripps National Spelling Bee finals.
But in the face of it all, The Vindicator 86th Annual Regional Spelling Bee champion is “cool as a cucumber,” said his father, William.
“We had no idea what we were getting into, but it’s just huge and there’s so many activities they have with the kids,” he said. “He’s taking it all in. He loves it.
“He’s very calm about it. A lot of these other kids are so nervous. He’s very easy-going about it for his age,” William said.
Santino and 566 other spellers took 45-minute-long written tests Monday as part of the bee’s preliminary rounds. Today, he’ll spell two words on stage.
If he gets those right and earns one of the top 50 scores on Monday’s multiple-choice test — to be announced Wednesday — he’ll advance to the final round, which kicks off Thursday at the Gaylord National Resort.
“Other kids were confused with the tests,” William said. “[Santino] thought he did pretty well.”
Last year’s bee champion was 14-year-old Karthik Nemmani, of Texas.
Though this year’s national competitors represent grades one through eight and range in age from 7 to 15 years old, more than a third of bee participants are eighth-graders, according to the bee’s official website, SpellingBee.com.
The national contestant pool started out with 11 million students in classrooms across the country, according to Scripps.
The 92nd annual outing is Santino’s second-only appearance in a spelling bee. He clinched The Vindicator’s trophy in March by correctly spelling “valedictorian.”
To hear William tell it, Santino takes as naturally to spelling as he did the wrestling mat.
Recently, the young athlete bas been unable to compete due to health complications. This is a different kind of competition, one that he and his wife, Lisa, had to push him toward, he said.
“He didn’t want to even do the school [spelling bee],” William recalled. “The teacher forced him to go down to the auditorium.
“‘Wouldn’t you be nice if you wanted to win this?’” they asked him. “He didn’t study, and he still won.”
William said he and his wife always read to their kids before bed each night. Santino’s teachers said he wasn’t just reading at an 11-grade level, but comprehending.
“He’s my son and I’m biased, but I always tell my family and friends what a genius he is,” William said. “He’s always been so smart, common sense-wise and smart beyond his age.”
Other regional Scripps contestants include eighth-graders Jeremy Slywczak, 14, from Badger Middle School; Maria Sargent, 14, from Salem Junior High School; and Jordan Schwartz, 13, from Alliance Middle School.
The final rounds of the bee will be telecast on ESPN.