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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Bee is for Winnipeg brothers

Siblings set to face off for try at provincial title

By: Nick Martin

Posted: 02/7/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Enlarge Image

Josh Mathews (left) and his brother, Nathan, are going head-to-head in the provincial spelling bee this Saturday.

Can you spell "sibling rivalry?"

Maybe you'd prefer to have it used in a sentence first... or a bunch of sentences.

Kids set to compete in spelling bee

THE eighth annual Winnipeg Free Press Manitoba Regional Spelling Bee goes Saturday at the Tom Hendry Theatre (Warehouse), with registration starting at 10 a.m.

There is no public admission to the event -- participants' guests only.

The Postmedia Canspell National Spelling Bee is held in Toronto from March 25 to 29, and the Scripps National Spelling Bee is held in Washington, D.C., from May 27 to June 1.

This was the first year the schools had to pay the registration fee of $109 (previously covered by sponsors) and registration dropped from an average of about 120 schools to 73, with 8,573 Manitoba kids in grades 4 to 8 taking part.

The regional winner receives a $5,000 education award and the opportunity to compete in Toronto. There, the top three students receive education awards of $7,500, $5,000, and $2,500 respectively, and the opportunity to compete in Washington.

-- Source: Winnipeg Free Press public relations and sponsorship manager

It's not a new experience for Josh Mathews to compete in Saturday's eighth annual provincial spelling bee, though still a big deal -- it's his fourth, and he's a two-time defending champion -- but this time one of his 49 opponents trying to knock off the champ will be kid brother Nathan Mathews.

Josh competed in the Winnipeg Free Press Manitoba Regional Spelling Bee the last three years for Bairdmore School, but this year he's in Grade 7 at Acadia Junior High, where he won the school competition earlier this winter.

Nathan, a Grade 5 student, is the current Bairdmore School champion, and he's ready to step out from beneath big brother's shadow.

Feel free to draw any comparisons you wish to NFL quarterbacking brothers Peyton and Eli Manning.

The two brothers last went head-to-head in a multisyllabic duel a year ago, when Josh was in Grade 6 and Nathan in Grade 4 at Bairdmore. A bunch of other kids took part, too.

"I got second," said Nathan. "I wasn't surprised," said Josh. Neither can remember the words that put Josh through a year ago or that spelled doom for Nathan.

They practise together sometimes, but Josh doesn't offer Nathan advice unless asked.

"When we're together, we write it (the word) down and then check it," Josh said. "If I'm by myself, my parents quiz me on the words."

Said Nathan: "Our parents quiz us daily. We do our, like, homework first."

There will be 50 kids registered Saturday for a crack at going to the national spelling bee and on to the Scripps bee in Washington, D.C. Like every child who's entered the spelling bee at any level, Josh has seen words he never knew existed.

"In the provincials, in the later rounds, I didn't know one or two words, so I guessed," he said.

He guessed right.

Both kids are well-rounded. Josh plays volleyball, guitar and tuba, while Nathan plays the piano and is in the school's recorder club. Both are looking at careers in aviation design.

Bairdmore vice-principal Colleen Roberts noted the brothers' family does not have a TV in the house. "That was interesting -- lots of time for homework," she said.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 7, 2012 B2

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