It took less than an hour for South Habersham Middle School student Kayla Nifong to claim the title of 2021 Habersham County Schools Scripps Spelling Bee Champion. Still, runner-up Laurel Jordan from North Habersham Middle gave the champ quite a run as the two vied for the title.
After the initial competition began, it took six rounds before all were eliminated except Nifong and Jordan. Successfully spelling words such as circulate, immediately, quarry and malice pronounced to them by Habersham Central High School principal Jonathan Stribling, the girls then went back and forth for 10 rounds. That’s when Jordan misspelled the word crouton. According to the rules, Nifong then had to consecutively spell two words correctly to become the champion. She aced it by correctly spelling propagandize and hyena.
“We are so proud of Kayla Nifong! She is a stellar student and an amazingly sweet young lady,” says South Habersham Middle School Principal Daphne Penick. “She is in the 6th grade so we are very confident that she will move to other levels of competition using her talent of spelling and her confident poise.
Penick says this year’s spelling bee was one of the best she’s attended.
“There were high-quality spellers from all of our schools. Our elementary spellers always wow me! Congratulations to all of the spellers, especially our alternate winner from NHMS. What a great way to end a spelling bee, with a multi-round duel!”
“It was the North versus the South all over again,” says Director of Elementary Schools Rhonda Andrews.
Athletics for the mind
Held in the Habersham Central High School auditorium on Tuesday, January 26, the event opened with Andrews welcoming everyone and introducing the 11 contestants from each of the county’s elementary and middle schools. Superintendent Matthew Cooper followed with comments and congratulations to the students.
“Ms. Andrews and I met to discuss whether to have the bee this year or not (due to COVID concerns). It took us about 15 seconds to decide,” he recounted.
“If we can play basketball, we can hold a spelling bee,” Andrews responded.
The Bee is sponsored by Habersham County Schools, the Habersham Association of Educators, and Volunteers for Literacy. VFL has sponsored the Bee since 2009 as part of the nonprofit’s early childhood and youth literacy program, Read to Succeed.
“The Scripps Spelling Bee is one of several VFL projects aimed at providing young people with the tools and training they need to succeed,” explains VFL Board President Don Gnecco. The United Way-supported agency pays the Scripps Spelling Bee registration fees for each school. VFL also awards trophies to the school winners and runners up, as well as the district-wide winner and alternate.
“The annual spelling bee event allows all students in upper elementary and middle school grades the opportunity to shine in a literacy-related competition,” says Kathie Nee, VFL past board president who helped Cooper present the awards.
The competition began last fall at the classroom level with those winners competing for the school champion title. The school winners and (runners-up) are Baldwin Elementary – Kate Zavala, (Toby Ballard ); Clarkesville Elementary – Sophie Roberts (Aniyah Mawdesley); Cornelia Elementary – Jordan Castaneda, (Payton McEntire); Demorest Elementary – Brayden Parham, (Branson Smith); Fairview Elementary – Jaylin Battle, (Tanner Slater); Hazel Grove Elementary – Brentley Craven, (Lily Myers); Level Grove Elementary – Kaylen Hartson, (Andrew Smith); Woodville Elementary – Adley Parker, (Erik Jordan); Hilliard Wilbanks Middle – Hanami Amano-Silber, (Mason Snyder).
The North Habersham Middle School runner-up was Leah Cheney and South Habersham Middle’s alternate was last year’s county winner, Richard Navarro.
Nifong is the daughter of Khamsavanh and Khingkham Nifong of Alto.
