FREDERIKSTED — Joe Greaux is headed to Washington.
Eulalie Rivera eighth-grader Joseph Greaux Jr. took first place in the Virgin Islands Territorial Spelling Bee on Tuesday after coming in second at the St. Croix District competition — which he won in 2022.
Next, he’ll head to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Maryland. Preliminaries for the national competition begin on May 28.
On stage at Free Will Baptist Christian School, Greaux exuded confidence as he breezed through words like “stowaway,” “vindictive” and “emblazoned.”
The fifteenth and final round of the fierce competition had him spell “shenanigans.”
Greaux said his experience helped, as did studying — a lot.
“I was nervous at first but . . . as the Spelling Bee went on, I started like, getting less nervous. Because I knew it would like hold me back, if I was nervous,” he said.
Greaux said he’s excited about the competition and the opportunity to meet other talented spellers from all over the country.
Shauna Greaux wipes away a tear after hugging her son, Territorial Spelling Bee winner Joseph Greaux Jr., on Tuesday at Free Will Baptist School on St. Croix.
His mother, Shauna Greaux, described watching her son advance through the tense competition as “nerve-wracking.”
“This is his third year trying out,” she said. “And for him to finally get it, it’s a feeling I can’t even describe.”
As several speakers noted during opening remarks, all of Tuesday’s young scholars were champions in their own right. They represented the top spellers from 12 of the territory’s schools.
Along with Greaux, Free Will Baptist fifth-grader Rayan Felix, Ricardo Richards Elementary sixth-grader J’adore Burke, Good Hope Country Day sixth-grader Jasem Rahhal, Pearl B. Larsen fourth-grader Chasidy Pickering and St. Patrick’s seventh-grader Layla Jacobs represented the island of St. Croix.
Virgin Islands Territorial Spelling Bee participants Jasem Rahhal, from left, Kashyma Paul, Evan Fahie, Rayan Felix, Amera Paul, Joseph Greaux Jr., the spelling bee winner, Kaiden Lettsome-Dowe, J’adore Burke, Chasidy Pickering, Layla Jacobs, Kwalane Flemming, and Eli Blash gather after the competition Tuesday at Free Will Baptist Christian School on St. Croix. (Photo by J. MELENDEZ/VIDE)
The St. Thomas-St. John District was represented by Antilles School fifth-grader Kaiden Lettsome-Dowe, Moravian School sixth-grader Eli Blash, Calvary Christian School sixth-grader Amera Paul, Yvonne M. Bowsky fourth-grader Kashyma Paul, Ulla F. Muller Elementary fifth-grader Kwalane Flemming and district champion Evan Fahie, a seventh-grader at Lockhart K-8.
Each one demonstrated an impressive command of the English language. Lettsome-Dowe tackled a string of compound words like “jitterbug,” “steampunk” and — appropriately — “bumblebee.” Jacobs handily dealt with tricky adverbs like “virtually” and “amiably” before getting stumped by “foozle,” a word meaning “to act or play awkwardly.”
Reactions from the audience made it clear that many in attendance were equally perplexed by the word.
Eventually, it came down to Greaux and Felix, who took home the title of district champion in February. A study in contrasting styles, Greaux sped through assigned words like “ozone,” “reprieve” and “acuity” while Felix carefully laid out spellings for “missive” and “ostensibly,” before running into trouble with “dissonance.”