Family dynasties fuel competition, intrigue at spelling bee

When Edwin Estep, a 13-year-old from a family of competitive spellers appear for this week’s Scripps National Spelling Bee, he is set to face three formidable Indian-American rivals, whose siblings have previously won the coveted contest.

Marissa Estep, 22, who went to the national bee twice, made it in 2004. Sam Estep, 17, a three-time contestant, advanced in 2010. Last year, George Estep, 15, got through.

And now, Edwin Estep is preparing for his first appearance.

At their rural home on 22 acres near Winchester, Virginia, the Esteps have worked spelling into their homeschooling routine.

“Webster’s Third is second only to the Bible in our house,” says the children’s mother, Kim, laughing.

The family’s spelling fixation is intense -- they have a computer with 40,000 practice words programmed into it.

Dynasties are part of the bee’s lore, with streams of siblings -- three, four, five, even six -- competing for etymologic glory on ESPN, The Washington Post reported.

A total of 36 competitors have parents, grandparents or siblings who participated in the national bee.

In this year’s bee, which begins on Tuesday in Maryland, three of the 285 contestants have older siblings who won the whole thing: Vanya Shivashankar, a 13-year-old from Kansas, and Jairam Hathwar, 12, and Srinath Mahankali, 11, both from New York.

Vanya previously competed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 2010, 2012 (tied for 10th place), 2013 (tied for 5th place) and 2014 (tied for 13th place). Her elder sister Kavya Shivashankar was the champion in 2009.

Jairam comes from a spelling family: His brother Sriram competed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee a total of five times and became co-champion in 2014.

This is Srinath’s first Bee, but his older brother Arvind competed four times beginning in 2009, and was the national champion in 2013, according to facts released by the orgainisers of the competition, now in its 88th year.

For the Esteps and other families like them, success in spelling is not mere wordplay. Competing is fun, even eudaemonic, but there is pressure, too. After all, sibling bragging rights are at stake, and so is the family name.

“People stop us at the grocery store,” Laura Estep says.

“They’re like, ‘Hey, there’s the spelling bee family!’?”

The Estep family’s foray into spelling was not fuelled by dreams of having their children one day stand on stage and correctly spell tough words. It was fuelled by panic.

When their eldest child, Craig, was in the third grade, he did not fare well on a standardised spelling test. That set off alarms. Spelling practice with a programme called “Spelling Power” soon followed.

Ahead of the D-day, Edwin now spends a good chunk of his waking hours, studying for the bee on his iPad.

“Once you make it once, everyone expects you to do it again,” he says.

This year the winner will get a cash prize of some $ 35,000.

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