Published on March 24, 2010

Maël Le Scouëzec, 2010 Vermont spelling champion. Photo by Joseph Gresser

CRAFTSBURY COMMON — Results that might have satisfied a lesser competitor were not enough for Craftsbury Academy student Maël Le Scouëzec.  He was not content with his third-place finish in the 2008 statewide spelling bee, nor did coming in second in the 2009 contest fulfill his ambition.

This year, though, Maël stood alone at the summit of orthographical achievement as the 2010 winner of the Vermont regional Scripps Individual Spelling Competition.

In a conversation at his school Monday Maël described the feeling of reaching his goal by.  “Whew…finally, after these two years I’ve made it up the stairs.”

While he admitted that some luck was involved in his victory, as well as a lot of training assistance from his mother Jennifer Le Scouëzec, Maël attributed much of his success to experience.  He said he wasn’t as nervous as the fellow competitor who failed to spell her first word, “interrupt” correctly and had to sit on the stage as the round progressed.

“We all felt bad for her,” Maël said.  “We knew she probably knew how to spell the word.”  He said the girl sat with her head in her hands for the rest of the bee.

According to Maël’s description such sympathy is not uncommon among spelling bee participants.  He said that competitors whisper encouragements like “good job” to someone who spells a word correctly.

“It’s not hard competition,” Maël said.

Maël said he spent a lot of time memorizing word lists for his first two appearances at the state bee, but that he didn’t spend as much time studying for this year’s contest.  He said that his mother helped him by looking for word lists used in other state spelling bees.  Sometimes some of those words showed up in the contest, he said.

Of course one can’t memorize every word, and sometimes it is hard to know what is wanted.  Maël said he spelled the word “shoofly” correctly, but had a moment after hearing it pronounced when he wondered if he should be thinking of something related to footwear.  Fortunately, his guess proved to be correct.

Maël said he will need to spend a lot of time between now and the end of May in study.  His victory at the state bee, held on March 17 at St. Michael’s College in Burlington, won him a free trip to Washington, D.C. to take part in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

If Maël prevails in the national competition, and that is his plan, he will be finished with competitive spelling.  National champions are barred from further competition, Maël said.

His spelling career would be drawing to a close even without his success.  Maël is 12 years old and in seventh grade.  While bee participants can as old as 15, they cannot attend a grade higher than eighth, Maël said.

When he is done with spelling Maël said he might participate in the Geo-Bee or Math-Meet if teams for either event are organized at Craftsbury Academy.

In the meantime Maël is willing to put his spelling prowess at the service of his fellow students.  He said that if his classmates have questions on a word they’ll ask either him or the teacher.

He said that one of his teachers occasionally makes spelling errors and laughingly checks some words with Maël.

Like other youngsters Maël communicates over the Internet.  He said he uses proper spelling when he e-mails people, but confessed to occasionally substituting the letter “u” for the word “you” in his instant messages.

Maël said that he and one correspondent deliberately misspelled everything when they wrote to each other.  That was Walker Storz of Kirby, who won the state bee in 2008.

“He might be coaching me,” Maël said, noting that, as a former national contestant, Walker knows the Washington ropes.