Eighth-Grader Casts Spell To Win Annual Bee

The word was “oscillate,” and the boy who spelled it correctly was Silas Hilliard.

A home-schooled eighth-grader, Silas won the 24th annual Valley Spelling Bee, a $100 U.S. Savings Bond, a trophy and plaque.

Good spelling, apparently, is native to Silas. As a fourth-grader, he won a regional spelling bee when he and his family lived in the Tri-Cities. He now belongs to Valley Home Scholars, a group of about 250 home-schooling families.

“Ailurophobia”, “delineation”, “parsimonious” - Silas drew some toughies Thursday evening on his way to victory over nine other finalists. Hunkered down on his folding chair, elbows on his knees, he never hesitated.

Not until he ran into “unanimity.”

“Could you define the word?” Silas asked organizer Bill Bussard.

“U-n-a-n…” Silas paused. “Could you repeat the word?”

“You only get to start once more,” Bussard reminded him. “Unanimity.”

“U-n-a-n…i-m…” - You could see the wheels turning: Was it ‘aty’ or ‘ity’? - “…i-t-y.”

“Correct,” said judge Kyle Schaefer, who sat next to a dictionary that looked twice as thick as his arm.

And although he looked a tad uneasy, Silas even made it past “regurgitate.”

Then Silas’ last opponent, Zac Field, eighth-grader at Evergreen Junior High, stumbled on “oscillate.” And the rest is history.

Heather Kesterson, eighth-grader at Gethsemane Lutheran School, was among the final four. She sailed through “kinesiology”, “antivivisectionist” and “anaerobic”, among others.

Catie-Rose Sherry, eighth-grader at North Pines Junior High, also reached the final four.

The word “parliamentarian” knocked both girls out.

Bussard has organized the Valley Spelling Bee for 22 of its 24 years.

The contest has survived a few misadventures along the way - including the year a civic leader announced, and mispronounced, words for the spellers, and the year the winning word was actually a non-word.

So, Bussard has learned plenty of tricks along the way.

He uses a collection of word lists that rotate every five years. He has definitions and prepared sentences using each word, “so I don’t have to think on my feet.”

Bussard keeps on with the contest after all these years because he likes to see an academic contest thrive amidst today’s emphasis on athletic competition.

“It’s a good keen contest,” he said.

But for all his expertise, and his 29 years of teaching at Bowdish Junior High, he still doesn’t know exactly why some children become good spellers and others don’t.

“Kids who read a lot tend to be better spellers. But not always,” Bussard said.

Indeed, several of the finalists said good spelling has always come easy.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo