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Couch the ‘consensus’ pick for Scripps National Spelling Bee
And the consensus is, this kid is pretty smart.
By correctly spelling the word “consensus” in the 21st round on Saturday at Sarah Scott Middle School in Terre Haute, Noah Couch won the Wabash Valley Regional Spelling Bee.
In doing so, the sixth-grader earned the chance to represent South Putnam Middle School and the Wabash Valley in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.
Apparently when Noah gets interested in something, he really gets interested.
Take, for example, a trip to San Diego a number of years ago. Preparing for a visit to one of the most famous zoos in America, young Noah started going through books the family had on animals, choosing which animals he wanted to see and memorizing facts about them months in advance of the trip.
“He was like a little kid who could have been a tour guide of the zoo,” father Nathan Couch recalled.
Now 12, Noah set his sights in recent months on becoming the best speller in the Wabash Valley.
His strategy was similar to the zoo trip — just learn everything there is to know.
“I had the entire list memorized,” Noah said.
It’s a simple enough strategy, though easier said than done.
Working with mother Laura, who had her own success in spelling bees as a youngster, Noah has studied pretty intensely. Mom would give the words and he was free to ask for definitions and sentences, just like in the real competition.
“He was pretty self-motivated,” Nathan said, “and when he asked, she helped.”
Still, Saturday wasn’t without its stress.
“I felt confident but I was worried that someone was better than me,” Noah said.
It quickly became apparent that few were going to be better than Noah on Saturday. The field thinned relatively quickly, going from 25 entrants down to two in just 10 rounds.
“Whenever someone went out, their backs were to me, so I just nodded to Mom, like, ‘I knew that one,’” Noah said.
Already Noah had bettered his position from last year, when he finished third in the region as a Fillmore Elementary fifth-grader.
With the rest of the competition in the stands, the action was only getting started for Noah and Carol Abdayem, and eighth-grader from Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Terre Haute. They went word-for-word another 10 rounds until Abdayem misspelled “pitchblende,” a radioactive mineral and ore of uranium, in the 20th round.
“I lost years off my life in that 20 minutes,” Nathan recalled of rounds 11 through 20.
Noah’s job wasn’t over, though, as he had to correctly spell “duenna,” a governess for young girls, in the 20th round.
Then for the championship Couch correctly spelled “consensus.”
Asked if he was surprised to get a relatively common word like consensus for the win, Noah was fairly philosophical.
“It’s nothing. It’s randomly chosen,” he said.
Noah’s accomplishment makes the second time that South Putnam Schools has been represented at the national event. In 2011, Addison Hughes, then a fourth-grader at Central Elementary, won the Wabash Valley Regional Spelling Bee.
Hughes is now a senior at Greencastle High School.
Their sights now on the National Spelling Bee, the Couch family is beginning preparations, with Nathan explaining that even the process of filling out paperwork is stressful.
Still, Nathan and Laura are trying to keep it from getting too overwhelming for Noah.
“We talked and said, you’re only 12 once. Let’s be 12,” Nathan said. “It’s a really great opportunity.”
One of the questions now is how much of the May 26-30 agenda is filled with meetings and dinners and the spelling bee itself — and how much time there is for the family to enjoy our nation’s capital and all it has to offer.
“We really want to go to the Smithsonian and see the Museum of Natural History,” Noah said.
It should make for an exciting week for the family of five, which also includes brother Levi, 9, and sister Madeline, 5.
Before thinking too much about seeing the sights, though, Noah has a couple of months of studying.
The question is what words to memorize next.
“We don’t exactly know what we’re supposed to study yet,” he said.
As it turns out, there isn’t exactly a list. Instead, the entire English language is apparently in play.
According to “Webster’s Third New International Dictionary,” that’s some 470,000 words.
Still, Noah is undeterred, having already learned a rather lengthy list inside and out.
“If these kids can memorize a list the size that was ...” Nathan began.
“... then the dictionary is next,” Noah interjected.