Sights set on state

     Did you know that the Cascade High School spell bowl team is the only team to ever win a state championship at CHS? 

     Winning six state titles and dominating the county competition for the past 15 years, the team is one to watch out for. 

     According to Mrs. Osos, one of the coaches, “Spell Bowl is a competition where participants (spellers) read words out loud and then must write them out, spelling them correctly – including capitalization, hyphens, and spaces.” 

     Students spell in rounds of nine words each in three competitions per season at the county, area and state level. The team also competes in lots of invitationals through the season. According to  Ms. Paradise, who is coaching in her eighth year,  the team holds their own invitational called “Spellapalooza.” 

     Due to the disruption caused by Covid-19, all of the competitions and invitationals this year will be held virtually. This will be a new challenge for the team as they have never had to compete this way before. 

     Spell Bowl has been around for quite a while at Cascade. Some of the former coaches before Osos and Paradise have been, Mrs. Bright, Mrs. White and Mrs. Corn, a former teacher.

     Also assisting this year is former CHS spell bowl state champ, study hall teacher, Mr. White, who will hopefully lead the team to another state title.  The team practices and competes from August to mid- November. 

     According to Paradise, “We have a lot of fun during our practices. To become a great speller and learn the very challenging material that these spellers do, you must practice so that you are on top of your game.”

     Some of the top spellers this year so far are senior veteran Savana Allen, who is a very strong speller.  There are also several strong rookies this year including senior Cheyenne Fanning, who is a forced to be reckoned with.

     The team has some very high goals this year as they plan to win county, area, all other invitationals they compete in and to qualify and win the state championship. 

     While most people overlook Spell Bowl, as they do most academic clubs, it is very intense and can be very rewarding to those who put in the time, effort and have a positive attitude.

     Watch out because this season the team has nothing but victory in their sights and will not accept anything less.