Roscoe student advances to the finals in National Spelling Bee

After successfully making it through Sunday's semifinals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Avani Joshi of Roscoe will be one of 11 finalists traveling to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida to appear on the live broadcast on Thursday, July 8, 7:00-10:00 p.m. CDT.  

The quarterfinals and semifinals were conducted virtually, so each speller competed from home, with one family member allowed nearby - in Avani's case, her mom Indu. Her father Ashutosh and her 4th-grade sister Ananya had to watch the events on ESPN in the basement. Due to the telecast delay, Ashutosh says, they could hear the celebration from upstairs before they could see it on ESPN. When she heard it, Ananya ran upstairs and gave her big sister a hug while sportscaster Paul Loeffler was still analyzing the victory. "Oh, look at that," Loeffler interrupted himself. "Doesn't that just make your night?" added ESPN broadcast host Kevin Negandhi.

You can read more about this amazing student, including an interview with her father, in our companion article. Subscribe to Roscoe News for coverage of the finals and free email updates each morning.

The semifinals began with the top 30 spellers and was to continue for as many rounds as necessary until the top 10-12 spellers remain. It only took three rounds, with a Word Meaning competition sandwiched between two Spelling rounds, before 11 young people were left.

In the first semifinal round (Round 7 of the full competition), Avani correctly spelled "renitent" which means "obstinately defiant of authority, stubbornly disobedient." Analyst Paul Loeffler noted that Avani seemed to know the word the first time she heard. But just in case, Avani asked the standard questions anyway, such as definition and language of origin, from Dr. Jacques Bailly, Scripps National Spelling Bee's official pronouncer. Then she asked him, "Can I please have all the information again?" and wrote the word into her hand while Dr. Bailly read the information to her. Then she asked, "Can you please pronounce the word again?" and when he had done so, asked for the pronunciation one last time. Then Dr. Bailly asked Avani to say it herself, which she did - both the accepted pronunciations.  Finally and carefully, she spelled the word.  "That's correct," beamed Head Judge Mary Brooks.  "Thank you," said Avani.

In the second round, the Word Meaning (vocabulary), Avani didn't seem to know the meaning of "vitelligenous" offhand. With only 30 seconds to choose the correct definition from a multiple-choice list, she finally decided that "something that is vitelligenous produces: a) the yolk of an egg". The broadcasters agreed the time limits make the Word Meaning round more nerve-wracking than spelling.

In the third round, Avani seemed more serious than other spellers, but her word was also one of the longest and hardest word in the round. In the end, she correctly spelled "lophophytosis" which is "a contagious skin disease of fowls caused by a fungus." After she had pronounced it herself and got the definition, she asked, "Is this from Greek?" She asked for the pronunciation more than once - which was helpful, since it has two alternatives. Later, Avani asked Dr. Bailly to confirm, "And you said both parts derive from Greek?" Finally Avani spelled the word as she wrote it on her hand with a finger, speeding up with confidence as she reached the end of the word. Judge Mary Brooks answered simply with  a big smile and the words, "That's correct" and Avani's little sister came on screen and gave her a hug. You rarely see little sisters on ESPN.

ESPN is known for covering football and basketball games, as well as other sports, but they seem to be taking the Scripps National Spelling Bee seriously. This is the 27th year they've televised it. Kevin Negandhi from ET SportsCenter hosted the ESPN2 broadcast. Paul Loeffler, the voice of Fresno State Bulldogs and himself a 1990 National Spelling Bee finalist, served as expert analyst, as he has for 15 years. Jen Lada, an ESPN reporter and host, will cover the finals.

The competition staff has rules to enforce, but they seemed to enjoy seeing the contestants succeed more than eliminating them. Scripps National Spelling Bee's Dr. Jacques Bailly, official pronouncer and the 1980 champion, is an associate professor of classics at the University of Vermont who smiles and says Hi to each speller. In 2009, he told Time Magazine, "I always want them to get all the words right. I think that's a lot of the fun of the spelling bee — you root for everybody. And I try to make it clear to the spellers that I'm there to give them absolutely every possible thing that I can to help them — within some limits."

Mary Brooks, the head judge makes a point to give an individual word of encouragement to each young person whenever she has to rings the bell that signals a wrong answer. She is a retired educator from West Des Moines, Iowa, and has served in the Scripps National Spelling Bee program for more than 40 years. This year, while one 13-year-old Ohio girl was waiting to compete, the internet went out in her entire neighborhood. So she was given her spelling word via iPhone, but not before Mary Brooks had comforted her first.

Dr. Brian M. Sietsema, the associate pronouncer, earned a doctorate in linguistics in 1989 before becoming pronunciation editor for Merriam-Webster for eight years. He is now a Greek Orthodox priest in Lansing, Michigan. When a speller asks if a word has "the feminine diminutive Latin suffix 'ette'," he is allowed to say,  "You're on the right track."

You can watch the final competition Thursday, July 8, 7:00-10:00 p.m. CDT on ESPN2 & ESPNU (subscribers only, with live sports announcers), play along at https://playalong.spellingbee.com/ during the broadcast, or check the play-by-play results for each round.

Avani Joshi first went to the National Spelling Bee when she was 11, in 2019. Avani placed 370th - and that was a tie. In fact, each competition from 2014 through 2016 ended in a tie for first place. But in 2019 for the first time, after 20 rounds failed to eliminate them, eight young people were named co-champions. That won't happen again. This year, if more than one speller remains standing as time runs out, the young person who can correctly spell the most words from a list in a 90-second "spell-off " will be declared champion.

We'll be covering the finals too. Subscribe to Roscoe News, and you'll get free email updates almost every day on what's happening in our area.

Now that Sunday's semifinals are over, the 11 finalists will travel to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida for the live broadcast on Thursday, July 8, 7:00-10:00 p.m. CDT.

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