Dover's Bryce Beckley headed to national spelling bee

DOVER – The English language has about a million words.

Bryce Beckley, 14, doesn't need to know all of them to succeed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Half a million should suffice.

For the first two rounds, he and other contestants will be asked to spell selections from "Words of the Champions," the official study resource of the national bee, which has 4,000 words.

The champion: Dover student wins Canton Repository spelling bee, advances to national contest

Another Tuscarawas County champ: Bolivar's Nick Williams ready for Scripps National Spelling Bee

2022: Canton's speller turns language skill into victory

"But other than that, as soon as those rounds are done, it's straight from Merriam-Webster," said Bryce, a Dover Middle School eighth-grader.

His mother, Lyndy Beckley, said they have been told that participants could be asked to spell any entry from the dictionary.

Bryce qualified to compete in the national bee by winning the The Canton Repository's 77th Regional Final Spelling Bee on March 4 at Kent State University at Stark's Conference Center in Jackson Township.

As the champion, he earned an expenses-paid trip to compete in the contest that will be held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Oxon Hill, Maryland. Bee Week stretches from May 28 to June 2. Competition will begin with the preliminaries on May 30, and conclude with the finals on June 1. A total of 231 spellers qualified for the contest, which will be nationally televised on the ION Network.

Bryce and Lyndy will go to the Washington, D.C. area for the bee and associated activities. Since school will be in session for his brother Brady, 17, sister Brynn, 10, during Bee Week, they will stay home with their father Alan Beckley, while Bryce and Lyndy travel.

Lyndy said the whole family supports Bryce and will be happy with any outcome.

"I don't want to put pressure on him to perform in any certain way," she said. "However he achieves is fabulous. And, obviously, we are providing any resource that he needs or wants to get him there. We're just proud of who he is, and the things that he's done."

Bryce is the first Dover student to go to the national bee since Pam Lieser went in 1962.

"I'm just proud to represent Dover," Bryce said.

He clinched the regional championship with the correct spelling of "anathema," a word meaning something or someone that one vehemently dislikes.

In 2022, he was among the last contestants standing at the Repository's regional bee, placing third.

This year, Bryce used a Scripps spelling app on his cell phone to help prepare for the regional bee. He's been working with "Words of the Champions," workbooks and other tools to expand his vocabulary.

"I do practice daily. It kind of varies, depending on how I'm feeling. Sometimes, I'll put in 30-40 minutes. Sometimes, I'll just look at the app for five-10 minutes a day."

At the bee, competition will be separated into four sections: preliminaries, quarterfinals, semifinals and finals.

"The preliminaries are going to be the most stressful for me, just because I might get a hard word then and just be out of it for the rest," Bryce said.

His preparation includes developing strategies for figuring out the spelling of unfamiliar words. One tack involves asking about the origin of a word because English has drawn vocabulary from many tongues. Words such as "cannoli," "pierogi" and "llama" have become part of English although they came from other languages.

"Certain combinations of letters make different sounds in different languages," Bryce said. "So you know in Spanish ... the double-Ls will make the 'Y' sound, so certain things like that."

Bryce said bee competitors ask for the definition of a word for clues about its spelling.

"I was once asked to spell the word 'edenic.' I had a whole bunch of different spellings. It could have been an 'I.' It could have been an 'A-E.' So then I asked for the definition. It was 'relating to the garden of Eden in the Bible,' so I knew it was going to be spelled E-D-E-N-I-C."

Bryce enjoys certain words for their cadence.

"I like words that are fun to spell, so words that will have a beat to them, sort of something that goes up and down. The word 'constitution' is fun to spell for me," he said.

Bryce has multiple interests in addition to spelling.

He has bowled in a youth league since he was 6, achieving a high score of 263 with a two-handed approach. He plays tuba in the middle school band and takes private lessons. This year, he participated in both the East Central Ohio Educational Services Center and the Ohio Music Education Association middle school honors bands. He also plays double/upright string bass in orchestra and participated in the winter session of Canton Youth Strings, part of the Canton Symphony Orchestra. He enjoys playing chess.

Reach Nancy at 330-364-8402 or nancy.molnar@timesreporter.com. On Twitter: @nmolnarTR.

Follow Bryce in the Scripps National Spelling Bee

Bryce Beckley is Speller No. 154 in the bee. He will appear on stage in a group with other Ohio spellers, as Scripps organized the bee with youngsters of different states together. A nearby speller is No. 151, Emma Liu of Hudson Middle School. She will represent the Akron Beacon Journal in the bee after winning a regional event on March 11 at Akron Public Library. Scripps tweets out the results for each speller, using a hashtag with their speller number. For instance, Beckley will be #speller154. Liu will be #speller151. Follow the bee at twitter.com/scrippsbee.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Dover spelling champ going to national competition that starts May 30