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Cooper Komatsu, with his proud parents, Rob and Deborah
Representing Culver City on Saturday in Stockton at the state spelling bee championships, his fifth-grade classmates at El Marino Language School know this about Cooper Komatsu:
After passing numerous tests before audiences of strangers, after staring down notions of pressure, he possesses a generous helping of a most cherished gift for a public player:
Poise.
Not too much.
Not too little.
Exactly the right measure.
He and his mother, Deborah, are a team in this championship chase, as they have been all along. Together is their style. She acts as her son’s knowledgeable coach, as his understanding teacher, and most of all, as his loving mom.
When Master Cooper and his mother were interviewed, he calmly took charge of answering questions directed at him.
How do you prepare for the state finals?
“We watched past bees on the internet. We asked people on Facebook about their hardest words, and then I tried to spell them.”
When you consult books, how do you go about it? Take us through your method?
“Sometimes we flip through the pages. But when we see a page that could be good, we stop and look.”
Ms. Komatsu spoke up about a point that slyly betrays spellers.
“The chapters in a book that are most interesting,” she said, “are when you say a-b-l-e vs. i-b-l-e, and the little kind of exceptions that apply to them.
“We have found out that i-b-l-e is five times more likely than a-b-l-e. So, when in doubt, go with i-b-l-e.”
“No,” said Cooper.
She laughed.
“Is it the other way around?” his mother asked.
Double-checking, Ms. Komatsu asked her 10-year-old again. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I am,” he said.
No chance anyone in the room – or perhaps even in the community – was going to contradict him.
Trying to think of Cooper and his preparation methods as they would correlate to an athlete, does he devote much school time thinking about spelling?
“During school time, I mostly act as if it is a normal school day.”
Cooper allowed that there are exceptions.
“Sometimes during recess, I think about words,” he said. “Sometimes I think of all the words I know. At times, questions come up in my mind about spelling, and I try to answer them.”
What words bother you because you have had trouble spelling them?
“In fourth grade, I got out on s-u-r-v-e-y-o-r. I have no idea why I got that word wrong.”
Now that you have participated in a few spelling bees, are you nervous when you stand before a crowd?
“Sometimes I get nervous. But since I have done a lot of spelling bees lately, I have shaken off the nervousness a little.”
Now you are more confident.
Cooper Komatsu, champion speller, paused. He sought to be precise.
“Well, pretty confident,” he said.
(To be continued)
