TRAVERSE CITY —
Nicole Blakkan-Esser dreamt of winning spelling bees since she was 6, and she has the paperwork to prove it.
“I hope you are a spelling champion,” Nicole, as a first-grader, wrote to her “future self” in a letter saved by her mother.
“I remember seeing the national spelling bee and saying, ‘Wow, those kids are smart,’” said Nicole, 13.
Count the Traverse City West Middle School seventh-grader as one of those smart kids. She left for Washington, D.C., on Saturday and will compete there this week for the 2011 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Nicole earned her spot on the national stage after winning the regional bee in March. She’ll face off against 274 other spelling phenoms for a chance at $30,000 in cash, a trophy and a spotlight on national TV. The semifinals and finals will be televised on ESPN.
It was crunch time at the Blakkan-Esser household as their departure approached, but they have experience with this kind of pressure. Nicole’s brother, Lukas, won the local bee and earned a spot in the 2009 national event.
“We kind of know what we’re getting into,” said Linda Blakkan, Nicole’s mother.
Nicole studied whenever she could, in between classes and track meets that dragged late into the evening.
“It’s getting intense, but she’s well prepared,” said Blakkan. “I was drilling her in the car at the bus stop.”
The bee provided as many as 2,000 words to help participants, and Nicole studied Greek and Latin roots to get ready for anything that might crop up over the course of the week.
“If there are one or two roots in a word, you can figure it out,” Nicole said.
Blakkan said it’s hard to watch her child up on the stage. In 2009, her son, Lukas, aced the preliminary rounds but didn’t score high enough on the written test to advance to the semifinals.
“No matter how much you coach or drill them, it’s nerve-racking to watch,” Blakkan said.
Nicole admits she’s a little nervous going into the competition but thinks she’ll be fine after she gets through a few rounds. She said she tries to put things in perspective to calm her nerves.
“I try to say to myself, ‘What’s the worst that could happen? It’s not too bad, you’ll just get a word wrong,’” she said. “And it’s probably one nobody from back home knows.”
Follow Nicole's progress
Read Nicole's blog about her experiences at Record-Eagle.com/blogs, and look for updates on her progress online and throughout the week in the Record-Eagle.
Nicole will take a written test Tuesday at 8 a.m. with the 274 other spellers. On Wednesday, she will participate in preliminaries, spelling between 8 a.m. and 9:45 a.m. in round two, and between 1:15 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. in round three. The preliminary rounds will be streamed live on ESPN3. Visit http://espn.go.com/espn3 to watch.
Up to 50 finalists will be announced Wednesday evening, based on scores from the written test and the first two rounds. If Nicole qualifies, she will compete in the semifinals between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Thursday. If she advances, the final round is Thursday from 8:30 to 10 p.m.
Both the semifinal and final rounds will be broadcast live on ESPN.
