Video: Starkville Spelling Bee Champ

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STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI)–A spelling bee champion from Starkville will take on the best of the best in Washington D.C. His win on the regional level was something new for our area.

“It feels good to know I have the ability to and it inspires me to try and do my best,” said Champion Bates Bennett.

Sixth grader Bates Bennett has won every spelling bee he’s entered since he started spelling in 4th grade. Bates says taking first place last Saturday in the regional Mid-South Spelling Bee in Memphis was hard work.

“I was very tired because it was three and a half hours long but I still feel like I could run a marathon,” added Bennett.

“It’s amazing to see how he’s learned rules for spelling, different rules having to do with different languages of origin and he just uses what he knows, what he knows about prefixes and suffixes and is able to really decode these words and spell them correctly,” said Liza Miller, Spelling Bee Chairman.

Bate’s mother, Kim Bennett says there’s more 3 thousand words they study for competition. His two younger brothers want to follow in his foot steps.

“Broady’s already very excited and already wants to study because he wants to get in there and beat Bates. You know sibling rivalry so I think Bates has brought a lot of excitement to spelling to Starkville Academy,” said mother Kim Bennett.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is set for May, and you can bet Bates Bennett will be R-E-A-D-Y.

This year the Bee has also invited spellers from the Bahamas, Canada, China and Korea among other countries.

Categories: Local News

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