FAMILY kids
SPELL
BOWL: By: Jackie Folkert
Not Your Typical
“Sport”
It’s silent in the auditorium when the audience gasps---will he score or will he choke? The state championship rides on this one . . . word. The Penn High School Spell Bowl team won its 14th state championship when Disha Waghray spelled the word “ouzel” correctly. I couldn’t define “ouzel” let alone spell it in 15 seconds or less. You can’t either? Don’t feel badly about it—Coach Pete DeKever said that his team of super spellers trips up on the word trinitrotoluene (TNT) if they aren’t too careful. (An ouzel is a type of blackbird, if you were wondering.) With 14 state championships in the last 16 seasons, the Spell Bowl team is the winningest group from the Penn-Harris Madison School Corporation, ahead of all athletic, academic and artistic groups. With that win record, some parents might be wishing they had bought their preschoolers dictionaries along with those footballs and dance leotards. “The reality is that many . . . students are not playing that sport 10 years later. They’ll appreciate it, but not use it…Spell Bowl students will use that skill every day for the rest of their life,” DeKever said.
“Spell Bowl students will use that skill every day for the rest of their life.” 16
THE
FAMILY MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER 2015
Realistically, most parents steer their young kids toward the traditional extracurricular activities, but there is room for more. By encouraging your kids to dabble in some unexpected hobbies and sports you may actually be nurturing future achievement. The nature of activities such as Spell Bowl, forensics, robotics or debate might give parents pause. Do kids really want to devote their free time to rigorous study—on top of their regular homework (especially when the other famous role models are readily available)?