Doylestown student to compete in Scripps National Spelling Bee
DOYLESTOWN − Any younger sibling can understand Zachary Yeager’s goals for the 96th Scripps National Spelling Bee.
The 13-year-old earned the trip next week to Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, with his victory March 24 in the Akron Beacon Journal Regional Spelling Bee.
Off to D.C. competition: Wayne County middle-schooler keeps family tradition alive with regional spelling bee win
His placement in the national event is his family’s third in four years. Big brother Andrew Yeager won the Beacon Journal’s Regional Bee in 2021 and 2022.
Andrew’s experiences were mixed, though, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, his participation took place in an office building via Zoom on computer equipment loaned from Scripps. The organization mailed a laptop to him, and he had to mail it back afterward. In 2022, he traveled to Maryland and took part in the normal way, in front of an audience and television cameras in a large ballroom. Andrew Yeager went out in the second round of the national bee both years.
Zach Yeager said earlier this month during an interview in his family’s kitchen in Doylestown that his only goal is to do better than his brother.
Ah, sibling rivalry.
From the outside, Zach Yeager appears much like his brother. Both are immensely quiet, and extremely brief in their responses to questions.
Zach is a big fan of his family’s participation in trivia contests at restaurants in the area. He enjoys science class in school. He’s a competitor on the school’s Academic Challenge team.
He and his friends enjoy escape rooms. And, interestingly, he listed his favorite musician as Weird Al Yankovic.
Father Derek Yeager, who also serves as his children’s spelling coach, says he’s not sure why the artist made such an impression on Zach, but cites songs such as “Word Crimes” among his personal favorites. The song, for those unfamiliar, explains spelling and grammar rules to the tune of “Blurred Lines,” by Robin Thicke, featuring Pharrell Williams and T.I.
Zach’s mom, Kelly, said she thinks he discovered Yankovic’s music by watching YouTube videos and sharing them among his friends.
“In fifth grade, my friends were talking about him one day, and I was like, ‘who’s that?’ and they were like, ‘you don’t know him?’” Zach said. “And I was curious, so when I got home I searched him up and started listening to his music, and I enjoyed it.”
Zach adopted a habit of his father, wearing a “lucky” shirt during competition. So, if you’re watching Ion Plus on Tuesday, you’ll likely see him in his button-down orange shirt emblazoned with octagons that look like a bee hive and life-like bees. It’s not a spelling bee shirt so much as it’s an insect fan’s shirt. It just comes in handy for the spelling bee competitions.
Derek Yeager said that unlike when Andrew competed, he’s not wearing any “lucky” wardrobe items. During Andrew’s spelling bees, Derek wore orange, both for luck and to make him visible to his speller while on stage.
Zach is looking forward to another trip to the Washington, D.C., area but says what he’s most looking forward to is being among the other spellers. The family will take a three-hour trolley tour of the capital area on Thursday. There are other activities available to the spellers and their families throughout the week.
Zach is an avid reader, which will help him during the bee. He said he enjoys fantasy books and historical fiction, says it can help at the bee.
“I think it can help in the definition aspect, as I can see (a word) actually being used in context.”
He now spends 60 to 90 minutes a day studying for the bee, with his father, using the Scripps’ Word Club app.
The gentlemen have made the vocabulary aspect into a contest, to make studying fun. If Dad misses a definition, he has to do five pushups. If Zach misses one, he does a single sit up.
As Zach moves closer to competition mode, he offered a final comparison of his and his brother’s preparation.
“I feel (Andrew) was very confident in his spelling capabilities, but not as confident in his definitions,” Zach said. “I feel like I’m decently confident in my spelling, and decently confident in my definitions. I don’t think there’s necessarily one of those that I’ll excel at more than the other.”
He said more of the same sort of studying will have him prepared to compete at gametime.
Laura Kessel, editor of The Alliance Review and The Record-Courier in Kent and engagement editor for The Canton Repository, also serves as coordinator for the Akron Beacon Journal Regional Spelling Bee and Canton Repository Regional Final Spelling Bee.
What to know
WHAT – 96TH Scripps National Spelling Bee
WHERE – Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland
WHEN – Bee Week runs Sunday through Friday, and competition is Tuesday through Thursday. Spellers are on stage for preliminary rounds from 8 a.m. to 7:40 p.m. Tuesday; from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday for the quarterfinal round; and 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday for the semifinals. The finals will be 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday night.
ON TV – All spelling rounds will be broadcast on Ion TV networks. All day Tuesday and Wednesday’s morning rounds will be on the ION-Plus network. Spelling on Wednesday and Thursday nights will be broadcast on ION TV.
PROCESS – Spellers will compete Tuesday in Rounds 1 and 2. For Round 1, they’ll be required to spell a word. If they spell correctly, they will then face a Round 2 vocabulary word. If they also get that right, they’ll move on to Wednesday morning competition in the quarterfinal. If they spell their word correctly, they’ll move to competition on Wednesday night. If they’re among the final 10 to 12 spellers remaining in the competition after Wednesday’s rounds, they’ll be part of the finals on Thursday night. The survivor that night will be declared the Scripps champion.
SPELLER BREAKDOWN – There are 245 spellers in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The Akron Beacon Journal's representative is Zachary Yeager, a 13-year-old seventh-grader from Chippewa Jr./Sr. High School in Wayne County. Ohio has 17 spellers competing, with eight girls and nine boys. Texas has the most spellers, with 20. California is tied with Ohio’s 17, and Florida, Illinois and New York each have 13.
ABOUT ZACHARY – The Akron Beacon Journal's speller, Zachary Yeager, will be speller No. 163 in the competition. This year, Scripps has returned to grouping state spellers in the competition, so they’re on stage at the same time. For several years, the order of spellers was done randomly. Follow along with the bee on X, where the Scripps National Spelling Bee officials (@spellingbee) give a speller-by-speller report on the bee's progress. Use the hashtag #speller163 to follow Zachary's progress.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Doylestown student Zachary Yeager heads to Scripps National Spelling Bee
