Wilson County Abuzz Over Teenager Bound for National Spelling Bee

Next week, more than 200 young men and women will stand in front of a crowd in Washington, D.C. and spell words many of us have never even heard. Eight students from our state will be there.

A Wilson County teenager is hitting the books before he hits the stage.

Many of us cannot say "Galbrathian" and most of us would not dare spell it, butJarrod Howardcan. The Wilson County 7th grader will have to know a multiplicity of words to compete next week in thenational spelling bee.

Jarrod, a student at Springfield Middle School in Lucama, is getting ready by trudging through the dictionary -- not that abridged paperback we all keep on the desk at work. He's using the real thing.

"I basically just pick out a letter and just go through quickly and try and find the words I don't think I can spell," he says. And there are not many.

Jarrod already won three other spelling bees to qualify for the national competition.

His mother, a horticulturist, and father, a tobacco farmer, say Jarrod is self-motivated.