Julian Harris Elementary boy felt 'frozen' after spelling bee win
Feb. 7—On the word "charismatic," 11-year-old Grayson Hendrix won the Morgan County Spelling Bee on Thursday at Central Baptist Church in Decatur.
He defeated about 30 other spellers who had won at their respective Morgan County schools in grades K-8 for a place at the Morgan County bee.
Despite his affinity for spelling, Hendrix, a fifth grader at Julian Harris Elementary School, is a man of few words when it comes to discussing his spelling acumen. He seemed a bit overwhelmed by the win Thursday. Asked to describe his feelings after realizing he had won the bee, he said, "I was frozen."
He did say he had been practicing spelling every day since October. His school principal had plenty to say about his victory.
"Any time I can celebrate one of our students, I'm with it," said Annie Diaz, Julian Harris principal, who immediately put the win on Facebook and contacted his family. "We are so proud of Grayson. I feel like this victory is a testament to his hard work and his passion for learning. It's students like Grayson who inspire all of us to strive for excellence. We can't wait to see what the future holds for him."
Hendrix and all the other county winners in Alabama will go on to the Alabama Spelling Bee on March 22 at UAB University Hall in Birmingham, said Cherie Humphries, director of elementary curriculum and instruction for Morgan County Schools. From there, the winner will go on to the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which is celebrating 100 years of spelling champions this year, she said. The Scripps bee is May 27-29 in Maryland.
Scores of students, parents, teachers, principals and others attended the Morgan County bee this year. As a group the spellers were impressive, correctly spelling such words as "consternation," "assailant," "scarab" and "antipathy," but tripping on such words as "arbitrary," "untenable," "alimentation" and "clandestine."
By Round 8, the bee was down to three spellers: Hendrix, Pyper Adams of West Morgan Middle School, and Hudson Boyd of Cotaco School. Boyd fell in Round 10 on the word "truncate." Adams correctly spelled "centipede" and Hendrix correctly spelled "quota" to keep moving. Rounds 11 to 28 were an exciting volley between the two finalists — Hendrix and Adams.
Adams got ahead of Hendrix at one point but was ultimately stung by the word "derivative." Hendrix then went on to correctly spell "asylum" and then "charismatic" to win the bee in the 28th round. He won a trophy and a year's worth of bragging rights for winning the bee. He also gets to go to the state bee. Adams won a runner-up trophy.
One of the toughest words at the bee Thursday was "Louis d'or," a French gold coin minted from 1640 until the French Revolution. Zane Ferguson of Priceville Junior High drew that nettlesome noun.
— jean.cole@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2361
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