WASHINGTON, D.C., June 1, 2023 –Bahamas National Spelling Bee Champion Wes Underwood and the delegation that accompanied him to Washington, D.C. for the 95th Scripps National Spelling Bee today paid a courtesy call on His Excellency Wendall Jones, Bahamas Ambassador to the United States.
Wes was accompanied by his father and mother, Yancy and Natalia Underwood; grandmother Marcia Underwood; brother Blaine Underwood; his Coach Bevil Clarke, who is a social science teacher at Samuel Guy Pinder All Age School in Spanish Wells; and other members of the Bahamian delegation, including Cylestina Williams, Chairperson of the Bahama National Spelling Bee (BNSB) and the Ministry of Education’s National Spelling Bee Coordinator; Patrinella Rolle, Assistant Chairperson of BNSB and retired ADE of Education;Trevor Nicola McKay, Assistant Treasurer of BNSB and a retired MOE principal; Demetria Rolle, BNSB pronouncer and education officer at MOE; and Francina Beneby, BNSB assistant secretary and BPL legal secretary;
During the courtesy call, Wes expressed his interests in piano, basketball, and video game and said he hopes to “pursue music and whatever else God leads [him] to do”.
“It has truly been an honour to represent The Bahamas at the Scripps National Spelling Bee,” he said.
Wes successfully competed in Rounds One and Two of the Spelling Bee preliminaries, correctly spelling “Apabhramsa,” and he got the correct meaning of “legume”, but in Round Three of the Preliminaries, he was eliminated on the word “roughage.”
