By Michelle James
Register-Herald Reporter
BECKLEY —
In 2006, Shady Spring Elementary School student Erin Mills spelled her way to a third place finish in the Gazette-Mail Regional Spelling Bee in Charleston. The future looked bright for Mills, the only fourth-grader in a competition for grades 4 through 8. Over the next four years, Mills advanced all but once to the regional competition and every year she watched as another Raleigh County student took the title, advancing to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. Although she naturally wished for her own trip to D.C., Mills said she always was happy to see students she knew competing in the national bee. “It’s really cool to see people from your own county succeeding,” she said. Sunday, however, was Mills’ time to shine as she improved upon her 2009 second-place finish, besting fellow Raleigh speller Matthew Koh, who attends St. Francis deSales Catholic School, for the regional title. “I was very excited,” Mills said, adding she couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sadness for Koh, who advanced to the semifinals of the 2008 national bee. “He’s a great speller. I felt bad for Matthew because I knew he wanted it so much, too.” Mills, who said she hasn’t missed a word on a spelling test since she forgot to capitalize “Monday” in the first grade, credits much of her success to her parents Joe and Debbie as well as “phenomenal” teachers at Shady Spring elementary and middle schools. “The teachers are wonderful,” she said. “For many years I’ve had fabulous teachers.” The next stop for Mills is the nation’s capital, where she and her family will travel for the national bee June 2-4. Mills and her family watch the nationally televised competition every year, and she says she knows she is in for a challenge. “We try to spell the words on the screen before the speller,” she said, explaining she usually has no trouble during the first few rounds. “After round four, they start getting really, really challenging and some of them I don’t know any more.” Mills said she plans to study hard, devoting the next few months to learning all she can, as she said she plans to study several guides and books as well as lists of commonly misspelled words. “It seems a little far-fetched to open up a dictionary and try to learn the whole thing in a few months,” she said, “because in the last few years, the ones who have won have studied the dictionary for five or six years.” Nonetheless, Mills has high expectations for the bee. “I would like to make a good showing,” she said. “Top 20 is my goal. Of course I’d love to win, but I’m just going to do my best.” — E-mail: mjames @register-herald.com
