Imira Cobb correctly spelled the first word of the Akron Public Schools’ district spelling bee. She got the last one right, too.
Imira, an eighth grader at Litchfield Community Learning Center, won the first APS-wide Spelling Bee Championship in decades, rattling off “P-R-O-T-O-T-Y-P-E” to win a trophy and a $150 Visa gift card.
That was after she’d already spelled words like “parachute,” “depots,” “compassionate” and “ratify” as one of the final three spellers Tuesday night at the district’s downtown headquarters.
Imira said she was nervous but confident. Having her Lafufu, Big Head, in the pocket of her brown hoodie helped calm her nerves.
“It isn’t the classroom anymore,” Imira said before the competition began. “It’s a bigger event.”
As the number of competitors dwindled to two, Imira brought her hands to her mouth nervously and fidgeted in her seat while Buchtel CLC seventh grader Naomi Cooper was at the mic. She gaped when Naomi misspelled her final word, “bayonet,” and looked shellshocked, clapping her hands together with a small grin when she knew she had won the competition.
Handed the microphone afterward, Imira barely knew what to say: “Thank you for your support,” she managed.
Akron has a long history with the spelling bee
With her win, Imira helped reset spelling in Akron, where the city has a long history. More than a century ago, an Akron Public Schools student was among the original nine competitors in Washington, D.C., at what became the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Helen Fisher, that first competitor, was a student at Portage Path Elementary School.
Despite sending more than a dozen students to the national stage since 1925, Superintendent Mary Outley said it had been about 30 years since the school district competed at all, including at the local level. She wanted to bring the bee back.
“I think it was wonderful,” Outley said after the winner was declared. “Our students came through their nervousness and performed.”
Imira’s performance was monumental for her father, Larelle Cobb, who could barely contain his excitement in the audience. Cobb lost his own spelling bee — third grade, Rimer Elementary School — when he spelled “jillion” with a G and came in third.
“Oh my god,” he exclaimed, as pronouncer Duane Dodson congratulated his daughter on her victory. “She did what I couldn’t do years ago.”
10 students from APS middle schools can test to move on in competition
At a break in the competition, Cobb gave his daughter a pep talk: Spell the best you can, Imira said he told her.
“If I didn’t win, it’s OK,” she said. “If I did, it’s great.”
“It’s just amazing,” Cobb said after she did win. “Just seeing my kid do better than me — seeing her get this far — every day, I try to teach her.”
He was already sending messages to family members, letting them know of her victory. And to celebrate? There’s a big plush Labubu that Imira wants. Now, she’s going to get the collectible toy, to add to her Lafufu knockoff.
Next, Imira and others will decide if they want to take a written test that could allow them to advance to the Akron Beacon Journal’s regional spelling bee. Imira’s father said she’s a drummer, she draws, she’s creative — so besting seven other Akron Public Schools spellers may be enough for her.
But if she wants to, Imira and the nine other spellers who qualified for the APS bee can contend for spots at the next level — a feeder competition for the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.
“We’re rooting for all of our students,” said Carla Chapman, APS’ chief of community relations and strategic engagement. “We hope to be cheering on some qualifiers.”
Chapman said her heart was ready to burst, she was so excited about the experience. Outley said she expects the bee to continue in the district, “if I’ve got to coach myself.”
“I was on the edge of my seat,” she said of the competition. “Absolutely, we’re going to do this. We want them to feel like champions.”
‘We’ll take second place any day’
Imira got to the district bee by spelling “heptathalon” correctly. She said she was proud and surprised — it wasn’t a word she knew and she completely forgot to study. But she asked for the definition and sounded it out to get it right.
Her first word Tuesday was “weather.” She also needed to ask the definition for that one, which is a homonym. She correctly spelled “gaunt,” “billowed” and “dexterity,” too, on her way to the championship.
Before Naomi, the second-place finisher, misspelled “bayonet,” she correctly spelled words including “ration,” “verdict,” “pistachio,” “plaited” and “invincible,” often with long pauses in the middle that set some of her supporters on edge.
Darlene Beecher, Naomi’s paternal grandmother who is raising her, said Naomi’s father also won spelling bees in school. Beecher said she was “beaming with pride” at how well Naomi was doing.
“We’ll take second place any day,” she said, adding that she was glad to see the spelling bee return after so long without one.
Lynn Ray, Naomi’s maternal grandmother, drove up from Columbus to watch her spell.
“We’re very proud of her,” she said. “I’m so happy that I came.”
Before the competition began, Naomi said she hoped she would place well because she was representing her school. She wore the bracelet that she got when she was baptized and a necklace her mom gave her for luck. She said she’d be a little disappointed if she lost, but she was trying not to worry.
Naomi’s winning word at the Buchtel CLC bee was “amnesia.”
Values beyond spelling: ‘magnanimous’
Two students invited to the competition did not participate, but others who did said they valued the opportunity to take part in the spelling bee.
Zoey Dennis, a Hyre CLC eighth grader, said she thought she could become friends with the other people in the room. And she’d never thought about participating in anything competitively before — now, she thinks she might.
“I was super nervous about public speaking,” Zoey said. “I still am, but it helps with that.”
Jeremiah Spearman, an East CLC eighth grader, said it made him happy that his nine-year-old sister was in the audience, cheering him on. He was stressed out before the competition, but said he thought the experience would probably prepare him for the future.
“As long as I give it my hardest, I’ll feel like I accomplished something,” Jeremiah said.
And Emily Shvets, who finished in third place, said she thought it was “pretty cool” that she could brag about being better than her classmates at spelling.
Emily got to spell one of her favorite words on stage — “magnanimous.”
“I always liked the harder ones,” said the fifth grader at National Inventors Hall of Fame STEM Middle School.
The bee fits in with Outley’s focus on a year of literacy, after the district fell short in the category on a state report card. She said the bee could help with a love of reading, increasing vocabulary and teaching students skills like stamina and discipline along with confidence.
Cheryl Powell, the executive director of the Akron Beacon Journal, said after the competition that she thought APS went “above and beyond” in its return to competitive spelling.
“I’m so impressed,” she said. “The kids were phenomenal.”
Akron Public Schools students who competed in the district spelling bee
- Naomi Cooper – Buchtel CLC
- Jeremiah Spearman – East CLC
- Zoey Dennis – Hyre CLC
- Gisselle Del Valle Valle – I Promise School
- Nasrullah Muhammadi – Jennings CLC
- Imira Cobb – Litchfield CLC
- Amelia Loretitsch – Miller South School for the Visual and Performing Arts
- Emily Shvets – National Inventors Hall of Fame STEM Middle School
Jared Craig from Bridges CLC and Theodore Adkins from Innis CLC also qualified but did not compete.
