Spell Bowl competed at regionals on Oct. 29. The sophomore-dominated team was pleased with their winning performance and hope to continue their first place streak at state on Nov. 10.

“We put effort into it,” sophomore Alea Alvi said. “Even though it doesn’t look like much, there’s still a lot that happens behind the scenes to make things go well. Getting a 25-point lead over HSE was no easy feat.”

Last year’s team consisted predominantly of freshmen, so this year was different.

“We have a bunch of sophomores who spelled last year and have improved since then, so we have more experience, which is why we’re a little better than we were last year,” Alvi said.

This year’s team is set apart from all previous teams according to Spell Bowl coach Terri Thompson-Mejias.

“This is the strongest team we’ve ever had at Fishers High School!” said Thompson-Mejias. “We placed first at Regionals last year as well, but this year we improved our score by five points.”

Hours of preparation go into a spell bowl meet. At weekly practices, Thompson-Mejias assigns around 250 to 275 words starting with one to three different letters from the 2,585 word list given each May. A game to practice the words assigned the week prior then commences, such as Sparkle, with a quiz to test their knowledge after.

Sophomore Reagan Frank studies for about two hours each week, which is about average for a Spell Bowl student. Different methods are used to learn words depending on the person.

“For me, it was a lot of repetition because that is how I get things into my brain,” Alvi said.

She highlights words she finds tricky and then writes them down several times.

The competitiveness between spellers helps them. The different grades try to beat each other and with this competition between them, everyone stays accountable.

The team will go to Spell Bowl state at Purdue on Nov. 10.

“I think we’ll definitely be in the top three,” Frank said. “We’re going to aim for first though. I think it’s definitely possible.”