12-year-old local spelling champ heads to D.C. for national contest

OK, all you spelling champs: Do you recognize the word that’s spelled t-a-o-i-s-e-a-c-h?

And do you recall hearing, spelling and defining it?

Reid Shaw, an incoming seventh grader at Tri-North Middle School in Bloomington, remembers being tossed that word during a spelling competition.

“It means the prime minister of Ireland,” he reported.

In an interview before heading off with his family to the Scripps National Spelling Bee, May 30 to June 1, in Washington, D.C., Reid talked about big-time spelling.

He’s one of 231 young people from throughout the United States who are headed to the national event because each has won a local spelling competition.

Reid was the winning speller of the south-central Indiana competition on Feb. 25, held at the Media School of Indiana University.

Now he’s preparing for the big national event by spending time in “Words of the Champions: Your Key to the Bee,” the official study resource from the Scripps National Spelling Bee containing 4,000 words that champion spellers would do well to recognize.

Reid, age 12, has other interests besides spelling. According to his dad, Brian Shaw, Reid plays a mean electric guitar, is an avid runner, and “a sports fanatic.”

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Bloomington spelling champ, 12, heads to D.C. for national contest