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Thursday, 08 February 2007 |
 Fifth-grade student George Jose, center, spells a word as his brother and (Staff photo/ Kristin Reichardt)
Brothers vie for city spelling championship
By KRISTIN REICHARDT
Staff Writer
The enunciation of letters flew one after another as two brothers engaged in a civil war of words Wednesday on the Wapakoneta Middle School Auditorium stage.
St. Joseph Catholic School fifth-grade student George Jose struck a fatal vocabulary blow to his brother, seventh-grade student Joey Jose, when he correctly spelled the noun "hygrometer" - any instrument for measuring the water-vapor content of the atmosphere - and won first place in the Wapakoneta City Spelling Bee after Joey Jose misspelled pedagogish.
"I'm pretty excited," George said after the 30-minute, 40-round match - 35 of which were between the Jose boys. "This is only my second year ? last year I made it to regionals."
George and Joey found themselves locked in competition after the first round, when St. Joseph sixth-grade student Annie Henderson and Wapakoneta Middle School fifth-grade student Austin Krites, seventh-grade student Kelly Richards and seventh-grade student Courtney Van Horn misspelled their first words of the match.
Courtney, the daughter of Angie and Jeff Van Horn, won second-runner up after a four-round tie breaker.
George, Joey and Courtney will participate in the regional spelling bee at March 10 at James A. Rhodes State College, the winner of which will continue to the national competition in Washington, D.C.
George and Joey, the sons of Pryia and Dr. Mathew Jose, said their keen talent for spelling sparks a bit of a sibling rivalry - the two spelled words for 124 rounds in the preliminary spelling bee at St. Joseph Catholic School last month before Joey finished first and George finished second ? that only lasts while in competition.
The boys said they help each other study for spelling bees, regularly studying spelling lists for four hours a day - the championship word list used for study and for the competition contained approximately 500 words, Joey said. Words that stumped the other participants included vitiate, foliage and gloxinia.
Courtney said the difficulty of the words surprised her - they posed a feat for which she did not adequately study.
"I just didn't think I would make it (to the city finals) this time," she said. "I only studied about an hour this morning, and that was about it."
Courtney said she plans to spend more time preparing for the regional spelling bee, but still compete mostly for fun.
Spelling bee coordinator Marilyn Shaw said the word list is intended to challenge the participants and they began with words often used in every-day English language and moved on to the intermediate list after George and Joey completed the initial list. Joey's frequent participation in the school and city spelling bees posed a challenge to find a list where he would not have an advantage, she added.
"Sometimes you just have spellers who are interested in it," Shaw said. "The Jose boys are phenomenal spellers, and the work ethic is there."
During the competition the boys spelled the words they were given rapidly and with confidence, pausing to ask for definitions, parts of speech and language of origin. George stepped in to spell his next word with a matter-of-fact confidence and an endearing slight lisp before the announcer finished verifying his more soft-spoken brother's previous spelling.
"I thought I was going to get out on the one word I spelled 'wunderkind,' " he said of the German-based word which means "a child prodigy; one who succeeds in a competitive or highly difficult field or profession at an early age."
He said his mother pronounces the word differently than announcer Julie Miars-Golden, the curriculum instructor for Wapakoneta City Schools, which threw him off.
Joey said he enjoys competing in spelling bees, which he has participated in since the fourth grade, because he enjoys learning new words. He tends not to care about learning the definitions, though, because he does not usually use large or complicated words in conversation.
"In class when I use big words they don't actually think it's me using them," he said. "And I have no idea what most of them mean."
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Last Updated ( Friday, 09 February 2007 )
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