On Wednesday, Nov. 6th, our Guardsmen Spell Bowl team won the Class 2 State Championship for the first time in school history!!!
This is a major accomplishment for our students and team coach Mr. Josh Kelver.
On Saturday, Nov. 16th, the team competed at Purdue University as one of the top thirty schools in the State. They competed outside of Class 2 in the state’s overall Spell Bowl Championship and came in 6th place with a score of 67.
Season Notes:
Spell Bowl is in its 39th year of existence, and this is the strongest season our school has ever put forth, for which the students deserve a whole heck of a lot of credit!
Grissom is now the reigning Class 2 State Champion, which is significant. This season wasn’t all varsity, either. Our B team ranked 21st in the state at the Area Competition and 5th in our class.
At Purdue (the overall state championship where class doesn’t matter), Grissom ended the season ranking 6th in the entire state. That means we outscored 118 other teams this season.
*Our score at Purdue was 67/72 (only one team per school can spell at Purdue, so this was just our varsity squad), by far the highest score Grissom has ever gotten in competition. Only missing 5 words as a team is pretty wild. Just for reference, when Grissom Head Coach Mr. Kelver spelled at Purdue for Grissom Middle School, in 2002, he missed 5 words by himself. So to only miss 5 out of 72 words (words like kaffeeklatsch, soliloquy, kohlrabi, brougham, ballon d’essai, antimacassar, triskaidekaphobia, etc., etc.) is exceptional. Again, these kids worked hard this season, studying before, during, and after school, on weekends, on Fall Break, over the summer, just nonstop.
We had many perfect spellers this season. At the Area Competition, Matthew Doughty and Ellie Schwalbe both got 9/9 words right. And at Purdue, it was Seth Hayden, Ellie Schwalbe, Mia McConnell, Viktor Yoder, and Matthew Doughty. Riley Hoover was near perfect at Purdue with 8/9.
Mr. Kelver is very grateful to the students, staff, and parents who helped facilitate the season. Thanks to Bri Adams, Natasha Bean, Laura Furfaro, Brian Loring, Cami Roper, Emily Shreve, and Vickie Marshall for letting me poach from your advisory so much this fall.
Thank you to Karen Barcome, Julie Lis, Ashley Kelver, Nick Paliga, Stephanie Hochstetler, Jen Sinclair, Laura Furfaro (again), Kyle Sagarsee, Eric Spatt, Robbie Gingrich, and Braden Black for your help hosting the Area Competition.
Thanks to PTO for running the concession stand and for feeding our students at Purdue.
Thanks to all the adults at home who got students to and from practice, provided snacks, and helped students in myriad other ways throughout the season.
And thanks most of all to the team, who were a joy to work with.
