The local Rotarians seated inside the Dowagiac Elks Lodge were treated to a miniature rendition of February’s Cass County spelling bee Thursday afternoon, when a handful of Dowagiac Middle School’s best spellers stopped in for a visit.

After warming up with easier words such as “courteous” and “surgeon,” the kids asked to spell out words from a more challenging portion of the English lexicon, such as “formicary” or “grandiloquence.”

Even middle school Principal Matt Severin joined his young charges on the action, lasting for several rounds before falling to the word “haberdasher,” making the common mistake of adding an extra “b.”

The educator and members of the sixth-grade spelling team did more than flex their knowledge of the dictionary, though. The team and their coach, David Schaller, described their experiences during February’s countywide spelling bee, as well as the weeks preparing for it, to the assembled members of Dowagiac Rotary during their weekly meeting.

Taking home took home third place during the team competition against other sixth-graders from Edwardsburg, Cassopolis and Marcellus districts, two of the team members, Martha Schaller and Ricky Haskell, displayed very strong performances in the solo competition. Schaller became co-champion of the entire event, surviving through a record-setting 65 rounds before the judges declared the contest a tie for the first time in county spelling bee history.

“What’s really exciting about this is this is my sixth-grade team,” Severin said. “This means I got them for another two more years of competitions. I’m sure they’ll do great things for us and represent Dowagiac very well.”

The six members of the spelling team were determined through a series of spelling tests administered by the school last year. After deciding the top 20 to 25 spellers in each grade, another quiz whittled down their numbers to 13, with one final test bringing them to five team members and one alternate.

Coach David Schaller had worked to prepare the kids for the county bee since late December. Going through the list of 1,000 words that would potentially be given to them during the competition, the team spent an hour once a week prepping together, Schaller said.

“What I was able to do with them at school was not enough to get them through the competition,” Schaller said. “I told them that at the beginning, when we started out, that you guys are going to have to do this on your own. I can help you a little bit, but an hour a week is not going to get it done. They knew that, and they went the extra mile.”

Taking the word list home with them, the kids took the time to memorize the spelling as best they could, and even utilized special computer flashcard software to help familiarize themselves with the words, Schaller said.

Even with the amount of preparation work they poured into the competition, little could prepare them for the actual experience of standing onstage, underneath the bright lights, at Southwestern Michigan College during the bee.

“The thing about a spelling bee like this is that it’s not just knowing the words,” Schaller said. “Saying the words out loud, letter by letter, is just a tough thing. You have to visualize; there were kids who were spelling them in their hand when they were spelling. It’s not an easy thing to do.”

Despite the challenges, Schaller said he was greatly impressed by the students’ performance. Severin echoed the coach’s sentiments, adding that Schaller’s leadership played a role in their success as well.

“He just did a phenomenal job with out kids,” Severin said. “I’m so pleased that he helped us out and took our team to the levels that he did.”