Superb Spellers

Roncalli’s Spell Bowl team takes first place at state championship

When an average person is asked to spell the word tyrannosaurus, they would most likely spell it incorrectly. For Roncalli’s Spell Bowl team, spelling that would be a piece of cake. The team achieved first place at the State Spell Bowl Competition. Scoring a 79 out of 90 score, the team brought home the trophy, beating out 26 other teams in the finals. Meeting since September,  Coach Jennifer Reidford oversaw all the preparations for this team to get where it got.

“We have 10 spellers that start practices in September studying 3245 words,” Reidford said. “This year was different and weird. Instead of going to Lutheran for competitions and Purdue for state, we were here in the classroom.”
Given the circumstances of COVID-19, this season saw changes so students could still compete. Even though they were restricted, this team practiced all their words so that they were ready to perform at their very best. 

“We practice once or twice a week, reading through all the words and marking down the ones that you struggle with,” junior Adelle Burkhardt said. “It’s good to hear the pronunciations so that you can build a base on how they sound when competition comes around.”

Burkhardt is a first year speller, saying that “I couldn’t make everything because of Cross Country. It’s a lot of fun. There’s a good mix of people on the team.”

Another team member, junior Samuel Sering, said that he had such a good time with the team, despite the circumstances. Sam says that his success is due to studying with teammates beforehand.

In an email interview, he said, “I would like to recognize that Bryce Lowery and I did the efficient process of ‘cramming’ right before we performed in our spelling bowl rounds, and it significantly developed me as well as gave Bryce that ‘Near Perfect’ type beat.”

He also attests that his attire that he was wearing had boosted his morale and helped him perform, saying that, “I believe the ‘drip,’ or clothes that I wore gave me that confidence boost, as I popped off with the collar, wore the classic red adidas shoes, showed up in Black and Yellow, Black and Yellow, and finished the fit with trendy glasses.”

He enjoyed the time that he had with his teammates, and also had something to say to anyone else looking into Spell Bowl. “ I would like to mention that we will need some top tier recruits to join the Spell Bowl squad for next year!”