[Editor’s Note: This is an updated, corrected version of an earlier story.]
[img]3011|right|Cooper Komatsu||no_popup[/img]Culver City Middle Schooler Cooper Komatsu, 12, only the second two-time winner in the history of the School District’s Spelling Bee, is taking his talents to the national level.
Cooper, a seventh-grader, finished first on Sunday in the Los Angeles County Scripps Regional Spelling Bee at Walter Reed Middle School, North Hollywood.
In May, he will represent the county at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., the nation's largest and longest running educational program.
The competition is administered on a not-for-profit basis by Scripps in Cincinnati. Eleven million spellers are involved, all of whom began at the local level.
The grueling six-hour regional event two days ago ended when Cooper correctly spelled the word “carillon” – a musical instrument found in churches and universities, comprised of at least 23 bells arranged chromatically and tuned harmonically so that they can be played together from a keyboard.
Cooper went 13 rounds without a single misspelling.
He defeated102 spellers from throughout Los Angeles County. Twenty-three thousand spellers competed to reach the County Regionals.
However, only Cooper, the winner, will advance to the Scripps National Spelling Bee, May 24-29, in Washington.
“I worked really hard to get to Washington,” he said. “I’m going to enjoy every minute of it.”
Three years ago, Cooper and his partner, Lily Haines from Indiana, finished seventh in the nation in the 2012 National School Scrabble Championship in Orlando. The tournament featured the best young Scrabble players in grades four through eight from the U.S. and Canada. He was the first fourth-grader to finish in the tournament’s Top 10.
He continues to be in the School Scrabble Championship. In 2012 he and his teammate Lily placed seventh. In 2013 he and his teammate Sheng placed 11th. In 2014 he and his teammate placed fifth.
Two years ago, after winning the School District Spelling Bee, Cooper advanced to the County Spelling Bee, where he took second, and ultimately to the State Spelling Bee, where he ranked as California’s 24th best speller.
Last year, he joined Simon Johnson as the lone two-time winners of the School District Spelling Bee.
As a seventh-grader, he was ineligible for the District Spelling Bee, which is for fourth, fifth and sixth graders.
That did not keep him from showing up to watch.
Quietly, he sat in the audience and wrote down the spelling of each word on a notepad to help him prepare.
The live oral rounds of the Scripps National Spelling Bee will be broadcast as follows:
Preliminaries — Wednesday, May 27 11 a.m. – 7:45 p.m., PDT, on ESPN3.
Semifinals — Thursday, May 28, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m., on ESPN2.
Finals — Thursday, May 28, 8 –10 p.m., ESPN.
Mr. Maleman may be contacted at gmaleman@aol.com
