County spelling bee ready for national stage | News, Sports, Jobs

LISBON — Columbiana County’s 2024 spelling bee champion Marissa Gatewood said she was nervous about spelling on the national stage, but she was also excited.

“Even if I don’t make it very far, I want to have fun. » the Salem seventh grader said in a recent interview.

Marissa, 13, is traveling with her family to compete in the 96th Scripps National Spelling Bee, with the trip sponsored by Salem News, The Review and the Morning Journal.

It will be spelling number 173 in a group of 245 spellings representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Department of Defense schools in Europe, as well as spellings from the Bahamas, from Canada and Ghana. .

The competition takes place at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, beginning with preliminaries, which will be broadcast live on Ion Plus from 8 a.m. to 7:40 p.m. Tuesday. The quarter-finals will be broadcast live on Ion Plus from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, followed by the semi-finals from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday on Ion. The finals will be broadcast live from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday on Ion.

The second round of each segment of the competition will include a vocabulary round requiring spellers to orally select the correct multiple-choice answer to a vocabulary question read by the speller.

Marissa said she prepared with the Scripps National Spelling Bee study guide, with the majority of the words for bee having to come from the dictionary. Her mother, Charlotte Leasure, added that the only way to learn spelling is to become familiar with prefixes, suffixes and word origins.

Marissa didn’t expect to get this far. Her journey to the national bee began by winning the Salem City Bee, then the Columbiana County Spelling Bee where she said she flew it.

Her mother, however, said she learned her spelling skills from everything she read and wrote. His essays on drug awareness and Americanism were published through the Salem Elks.

Marissa said she enjoys reading novels and young adult books, mentioning books such as “Little woman,” “Miss Spitfire: Reaching Helen Keller” And “Flowers in the Attic” but his favorite book of all time is “The foreigners” by SE Hinton.

When she is not reading or writing, she plays an instrument. She started with the flute, then moved to the alto saxophone and now she plays the tenor saxophone. She also learned the electric guitar. She was also a member of Interact.

According to his biography on the Scripps National Spelling Bee website, “Marissa’s hobbies include writing, drawing and music. In fact, she plays five different musical instruments. His favorite author is the American novelist VC Andrews, but his favorite book is “The foreigners» by SE Hinton. She is most proud of her academic accomplishments, such as qualifying for this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee. She spends her free time playing games and spending time with her family. She said her favorite animal was the raccoon.

“I am proud of his academic achievements. It made me happy that she was rewarded for this type of achievement,” said his mother.

Aside from his mother, his supporters include his stepfather Craig Leasure, his three older brothers, Markus, 21, Parker, 17, and Kai, 16, as well as his father, Steve Gatewood and stepmother Maggie Gatewood.

For this trip, she will be accompanied by her mother, her stepfather, as well as the brothers Parker and Kai. His father could come too.

The family has never traveled to Washington, D.C. before, so Marissa and her mother said they were looking forward to seeing the sites and tackling the metro. Marissa said she likes museums and art galleries and also wants to visit the Holocaust Museum and wants to learn more about it.

Bee Week includes a Memorial Day picnic for spellers and their families, a bus tour and a banquet at the end, with free time in between.

She looks forward to spending time with her family on vacation and having fun when she’s not spelling.

"I think I’ll be fine, just a little nervous because of all the people that will be there," she says.

The county bee only featured 37 spellers at the local Beaver High School auditorium, so the national bee will be much larger and it will be televised live. The county bee was co-sponsored by the Morning Journal, the Salem News and The Review, as well as the Columbiana County Educational Service Center.

In addition to a plaque, champion prizes for Marissa included: an invitation to compete in the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee, including a six-night stay at Gaylord National Resort for the champion and a parent; a one-year subscription to Merriam-Webster Unabridged Online; The Samuel Louis Sugarman Award, a 2024 proof set from the US Mint; a one-year subscription to Britannica Online Premium; a one-year subscription to Epic Family; eight live, one-on-one online coding classes and a one-year at-home subscription to Tynker.

The winner of the national bee will receive $50,000, plus a commemorative medal and the Scripps Cup.

To learn more about the Scripps National Spelling Bee and follow Marissa’s progress, visit www.spellingbee.com.

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