Shontavious Robertson Wins the 2024 Hardeman County Spelling Bee {video}

The Hardeman County Schools annual spelling bee was held on Monday, January 29, 2024, in the Bolivar Central High School auditorium. Twenty-two students were in attendance to compete and show their skills as orthographers – great spellers – to be named the top speller of Hardeman County. Shontavious Robertson, a sixth-grade student from Bolivar Middle School was the “last young man standing” spelling the word “equinox” to take the first-place trophy win.

The annual Hardeman County Spelling Bee celebrates the top spellers across the county in the fourth through eighth grades. All students who placed first through third at their school spelling bees come together to compete as individuals on a level playing field against their schoolmates and peers from across the county. The local competition not only provides more practice time for the first-place winners from all eight schools moving on to the Tennessee Titans Regional Spelling Bee in March, but also continues the learning for all students who placed first through third at their individual school.

“I am excited about these opportunities to give them the chance to do public speaking, start off learning about leadership, and growing self-esteem,” said Dr. Monica Shaw, Assistant Director of Teaching & Learning Pre-K -5 with the Hardeman County School Board. “If they don’t have the opportunity to get before a group and speak, to feel confident in what they’re doing, what are we doing? We are trying to lead the future and trying to get them ready, future ready. We have got to put them in opportunities to do the work. Opportunities like spelling bees and decathlons will do that for them.”

The spelling bee began with one practice round for students to learn the presentation and flow of the competition. Many of the students have competed previously in the spelling bee and none appeared to be as nervous as maybe some of their family members were who sat in the audience to cheer them on. Some of the words that ended the competition for students were “battalion”, “impenetrable”, “knickerbockers“, and “primavera”.

Seven spellers were left at the beginning of round three. Max Rimmer was the only contestant to correctly spell his round three word, but he missed the final championship word “Ganges”. After the Spelling Bee coordinators consulted, they called Max back up along with the last three spellers from round three to begin a new round. In round four, only Shontavius spelled correctly, but then he missed his final championship word, “subaltern”, which sent the Spelling Bee coordinators to the back to consult the rules again before they called the final four spellers back to begin round five. In the next round, Shontavious was again the only one to spell his final word correctly. All held their breath after Shontavious spelled his round competition word, “parable” successfully, and continued to spell his word for the championship correctly, “equinox”. At that, the auditorium broke out in a roar of applause.

The 2024 Hardeman County Spelling Bee winners are Shontavious Robertson of Bolivar Middle School, 1st Place; Alex Fawcett of Toone Elementary School, 2nd Place; Libby Smith of Hornsby Elementary School, 3rd Place; and Max Rimmer of Bolivar Elementary School, 4th Place. Along with trophies, each student received a gift certificate.

Shontavious, who placed third in his school spelling bee, has participated in previous bees, and took his win in stride.

“Thanks for the support and everything from everyone,” said Shontavious.

The first-place winners from the spelling bees held last year at each school will continue to the 2024 Tennessee Titans Regional Spelling Bee, which will be held in March in Nashville with 50 other counties being represented.

Watch the 2023 Hardeman County Spelling Bee here.

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