Spellbound
CRANBERRY TWP — A seventh-grader from Saint Kilian Parish School in Cranberry Township will be representing the region at this year's Scripps National Spelling Bee next month in Washington, D.C.
Anthony Spalvieri's love of spelling came early.
“When I was little, I always used to love reading and spelling, and I'd always used to look at the words too,” he said. “I still like to spell, so in fourth grade I tried in the school spelling bee, and I got third place. Then the next year I won it, so I was very happy, and I wanted to get into spelling more.”
Anthony went on to win the Diocesan Spelling Bee in Pittsburgh, which is open to fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders.
He won it again the next year, so his parents, Tony and Pam Spalvieri of Seven Fields, decided he should have the chance to compete in spelling bees against other similarly skilled spellers.
“We approached our school and said 'How can he go further?'” said Pam Spalvieri, Anthony's mother. “Because he's good at spelling, he has a knack for it and he needs to be challenged further. So they started up a new spelling bee at Saint Kilian's that was for seventh- and eighth-graders.”
After winning that, Anthony went on to the March 10 Western Pennsylvania Spelling Bee at Robert Morris University in Moon Township, which he also won.
“We were surprised,” Pam Spalvieri said. “We were like 'I hope he makes it to the finals,' and he made it well past the finals.”
That gained him entry to the Scripps spelling bee starting May 27, giving Anthony a few more weeks to prepare.
“I have to study a lot more words,” he said. “There's this book I have to help you study for the Scripps spelling bee. I do like 13 pages a day. I write all the words I don't know down.”
Additionally, Anthony goes through the dictionary looking for words that may pop up in the later rounds of the competition, which runs to June 1.
“The lists only go so far, and once we run out of the list we're going to the dictionary. And how do you study the dictionary?” Pam Spalvieri said. “And so he'd pull out the dictionary and look up words.”
Anthony's father Tony helps him go over these words. Anthony also studies to prepare for words he has never seen before.“I know some roots to different words and tips like the language of origin or what country it's from I can figure it out from that,” he said.“I was just amazed he could spell all these words,” Pam Spalvieri said. “I knew he could spell words he'd seen before, but for him to spell words he'd never seen before was crazy.”And while some students balk at having to speak and compete in front of crowds of people, Anthony said he hadn't really noticed it being a problem.“When we first saw him doing the spelling bee he was completely in the zone,” Pam Spalvieri said. “We were like 'Who is this kid?' Completely comfortable.”She described Anthony as typically more on the quiet side. But when competing at the spelling bees, Anthony is confident he'll do well.“At the first Pittsburgh Diocesan Bee that we went to ... after so many rounds they gave the kids a break and they could have drinks and cookies, so I said to Anthony at the time 'Do you want to go get a cookie?'” Pam Spalvieri recounted. “And he said 'No I'll get one when I win.' and I'm like 'What?' Sure enough he won, but there were no cookies left.”Now the Spalvieris are getting ready to go to the nation's capital and to a competition Anthony has watched since he was a child.“He wanted to go to the Scripps so bad ever since he was young,” Pam Spalvieri said. “We'd be on vacation a lot of time over Memorial Day weekend, and he'd be in the hotel room with the TV on watching the words ... I knew it was something he always had an interest in. I'm so excited he gets to go.”
