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SL speller carries on family tradition with trip to national bee

BLACK

WELLSVILLE — Southern Local seventh grader Silas Black is carrying on what seems to be a new family tradition of late: Traveling to the nation’s capital to compete in the nation’s biggest spelling bee.

Following in the footsteps of older sisters Jasmine and Harmony, Black will take his place alongside 291 spellers from across the country this coming week during the 90th Scripps National Spelling Bee, which will take place at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., a suburb of Washington, D.C. The three-day competition starts Tuesday and concludes Thursday.

The 13-year-old earned his spot in the national bee after outspelling 45 other spellers at the Columbiana County Spelling Bee in Lisbon on March 8, taking the crown by correctly spelling “pochismo.”

While he doesn’t say much, Silas said he’s looking forward to the competition.

“I get to meet a lot of new people I guess,” he said.

His victory earned him an all-expenses paid trip to the site of the spelling bee, covered by the Salem News, Review and Morning Journal — co-sponsors of the county bee along with the Columbiana County Educational Service Center.

Silas also received a first-place plaque, the Samuel L. Sugarman Award, a 2017 United States Mint Proof Set donated by Jay Sugarman, a one-year subscription to Britannica Online Premium, and a one-year subscription to Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Online Dictionary.

The third child and oldest son of Dale and Hoi Wah Black, Silas acknowledged he was a little nervous at first and hadn’t expected to win at county, which Mrs. Black attested to, but he added he put in quite a bit of effort prior to taking the local bee stage.

“I was pretty nervous,” Silas said. “I didn’t think I was going to win.”

“Silas was actually shaking on the stage in the first few rounds,” Mrs. Black said. “We could see that in the first few rounds. He was holding his stomach.”

Silas mentioned that while participating in the bee, he also is looking forward to visiting some of the monuments and museums in Washington D.C.

“I think we’re going to go to the barbecue at Nationals Park,” Mrs. Black said.

Silas may be heading to his first national bee, but for the Black family it’ll be the third year in a row they will make a visit to the nation’s capital.

Eldest sister Jasmine, at the time an eighth grader at Edison High School, was the first to go to the Scripps national bee in 2015, as a representative of Jefferson and Harrison counties. That year she tied for 50th in the Scripps bee. Although she correctly spelled both words in the preliminary rounds, her point total wasn’t high enough to earn a spot in the finals.

Last year, sister Harmony, now a Southern Local High freshman, punched her ticket to the national bee, but was eliminated in the morning preliminary round after misspelling “accipiter.”

At that time, Harmony was one of only two Southern Local students (the other was two-time county champion Jaima Hazelton) and the first since 1991 to have represented Columbiana County in the national competition.

With his victory, Silas is now the third Southern Local student to represent the county.

Just as Harmony did last year, Silas has been studying with the help of Jasmine.

“It seems like with Jasmine, it goes quicker,” Silas said.

While Silas does happen to follow in Jasmine and Harmony’s footsteps, there is one noticeable difference. Jasmine and Harmony advanced to the national bee as eighth graders, while Silas is competing as a seventh grader, meaning he could do it all over again next year and come out a two-time county champion, pulling off a feat last achieved in 2014 by then-Leetonia eighth grader Sash Davis.

That’s unless youngest brother Justus, currently a fifth grader, happens to enter the competition.

“He did compete this year at the school bee, but he got nervous and missed his first word,” Mrs. Black said.

Outside of studying and school work, Silas is a member of the junior high track team, and enjoys four-wheeling, video games, lifting weights, playing with the family dog and meeting up with friends on the weekends.

The Bee competition is divided into two aspects: a written test and spelling, done in preliminaries and finals.

The first preliminary round, which takes place Tuesday, is a multiple-choice vocabulary test to see how well students know certain words. Spellers are given one hour to complete the test, and no eliminations take place during this round.

Then two preliminary rounds are held Wednesday, this time with the students taking the stage and spelling words. A correct spelling earns the student points and advances them to the afternoon preliminary round, but as usual, any incorrect spellings result in elimination from the competition.

From the surviving spellers after the third preliminary round, scores are added up, and the maximum 50 students with the highest scores advance to the Thursday finals.

The winner of the Scripps National Spelling Bee will receive cash and prizes along with fame and national recognition across the country. This includes the Scripps National Spelling Bee engraved trophy, $40,000 cash, a $2,500 savings bond and a complete reference library from Merriam-Webster, and $400 of reference works from Encyclopaedia Brittanica.

The winner will also get to do traveling with two all-expenses paid trips: one to New York City to appear on “Live with Kelly and Ryan” and the other to Hollywood to appear on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

As for this year’s trip, Mrs. Black thanks the Columbiana County newspapers who have handled expenses for the trip to the national bee, and also thanked the Southern Local schools for the support leading up to the bee.

“Without you guys, this wouldn’t be possible,” Mrs. Black said.

The 90th Scripps National Spelling Bee will be broadcast live through three of ESPN’s stations. The two preliminary spelling rounds will air on ESPN3 Wednesday, with the first round starting at 8 a.m., following by the second round at 1:15 p.m. The finals will begin at 10 a.m. Thursday, and will air live on ESPN2, and the championship spell-off will air at 8:30 p.m. Thursday on ESPN.

Fans can also check on Silas’ status — as well as the rest of the field — on the bee’s website, www.spellingbee.com, and also on social media through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat and Flickr.

srappach@reviewonline.com

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