Seventh-Grader Spells His Way to National Bee

By Garrett Downing

Originally published at 1:14 a.m., March 7, 2008
Updated at 8:25 a.m., March 7, 2008

As Santos DeBarros walked off the stage Thursday night at the Loudoun County Spelling Bee, something happened for the first time in his life.

Somebody asked for his autograph.

“I've never had that happen before,” DeBarros, of Waterford, said. “It is a little different.”

That was the only time all night DeBarros -- who had just won the 26th annual county spelling bee -- was caught off guard. The home-schooled seventh-grader cruised through five rounds and knocked off 88 other spellers before taking home first place after correctly spelling "psychokinesis," which means the ability to move or deform inanimate objects through the mental process.

With the win, DeBarros, 12, secures a spot in the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee on May 29 and 30 in the District. He also took home a bag of prizes, including a $20 Amazon gift card, a Merriam-Webster collegiate dictionary and a savings bond certificate.

“This is probably the first time I have ever won anything major,” DeBarros said. “I'm pretty excited.”

He also participated in the bee two years ago as a fifth-grader, advancing to the fourth round of the competition. He said that previous experience -- and time spent studying random pages of the dictionary -- helped him keep a cool demeanor in a crowd of anxious participants.

Tapping feet and biting nails kept some students busy as they waited for their turn to approach the microphone.

“It was very tense,” DeBarros said. “I didn't know what was going to happen.”

To qualify for the Loudoun spelling bee, which is open to Loudoun County public, private and home-schooled students in grades five through eight, contestants first had to win a competition at their school.

Sean Michael Bills, a fifth-grader from Emerick Elementary, took second place. In third place was Belmont Ridge Middle eighth-grader Meaghan Rachal.

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Loudoun County Spelling Bee

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The three finalists of the 26th annual Loudoun County Spelling Bee held at Stone Bridge High School. From L to R, the winner is Santos DeBarros, a home schooler, eighth grader Meaghan Rachal of Belmont Ridge Middle and fifth grader Sean Michael Bills of Emerick Elementary. (John McDonnell)

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Eighth grader Meaghan Rachal of Belmont Ridge Middle and fifth grader Sean Michael Bills of Emerick Elementary. Bills place second in the competition. (John McDonnell)

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Santos DeBarros shows off his smile after winning the Loudoun County Bee and earning a trip to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., on May 30 and 31. (John McDonnell)

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Santos DeBarros, a home schooled seventh grader from Waterford, approached the microphone for the winning world, psychokinesis. (John McDonnell)

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Santos DeBarros, champion of the Loudoun County Spelling Bee, and Sean Michael Bills of Emerick Elementary watch as Meaghan Rachal of Belmont Ridge competes for second place. 89 Loudoun County public, private and home-schooled students participated. (John McDonnell)

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“I'm glad I came in second,” Bills said. “It definitely made me feel good and it was just fun being in there.”

The first-place finish for DeBarros makes him the first home-schooled student to win the county bee since 2005. The semi-finals of the national competition are shown on ESPN and the finals are on ABC.

The word pronouncer was Paul Vickers, principal at Mill Run Elementary School. Judges were Sherri Simmons, a dean at Stone Hill Middle School; Elizabeth Dotur, a retired principal and coordinator of the first six Loudoun County spelling bees; Lina Hashem, a copy editor at the Loudoun Times-Mirror; and Elizabeth Greenblatt, a secretary at Rolling Ridge Elementary School and mother of the winner of 1984's National Bee.

The spelling bee, held at Stone Bridge High School, was sponsored by the Loudoun Times-Mirror.

Think you can spell?

Take a look at a few of the 194 words included Thursday night in the Loudoun County Spelling Bee.

Obfuscatory: To confuse, bewilder, or stupefy.

Nepotism: Patronage bestowed or favoritism shown on the basis of family relationship, as in business and politics.

Acumen: Keen insight; shrewdness.

Elegize: To compose an elegy.

Consortium: Any association, partnership, or union.

Transience: An impermanence that suggests the inevitability of ending or dying.

Neuritic: Inflammatory or degenerative lesion of a nerve marked especially by pain.

Brachiate: To progress by swinging from hold to hold by the arms.

Popinjay: A strutting supercilious person.

Macropterous: Having long or large wings.

Formicary: An ant nest.

Somatotonic: A pattern of temperament that is marked by predominance of physical over social or intellectual factors.

Psychokinesis: The purported ability to move or deform inanimate objects, as metal spoons, through mental processes.

Machinate: To plan or plot especially to do harm.

Haplology: Contraction of a word by omission of one or more similar sounds or syllables.

Tagged: education, elementary schools, middle schools, schools, spelling bee, Stone Bridge High School

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