Novi's Mulay Makes National Spelling Bee

NOVI, MI — It’s going to be a whirlwind two weeks for Varad Mulay. In about a 13-day span, the eighth-grade student at Novi Middle School will travel to Tennessee and Washington, D.C. to compete in two big events, including the 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The 13-year-old will begin his two-city tour in Knoxville for the Destination Imagination Global Finals, May 24-27. There he will compete in the Service Learning category during the international competition with six Novi classmates. One day after returning from Tennessee, Mulay and his family will head to the nation’s capital, where he will join 10 other Michigan spellers gathered for the national bee.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee will be held May 28-June 4, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Oxon Hill, Maryland. The preliminary rounds (May 31) and finals (June 1) will air live on the ESPN family of networks (Check local listings for time and channel).

“We’re proud of him,” said Andrew Comb, assistant principal at Novi Middle School. “He’s a great student and it’s great to see him focus on an extracurricular that he seems to love.”

In March, Mulay out-spelled 85 other students from Oakland County to earn a spot in the national championship. To win the regionals, he correctly spelled sabreur, which refers to a fencer who fights with a sabre, followed by duende, which means a quality of passion or inspiration.

“I think some of the value of the spelling bee for (Mulay) is that he really learns process, protocol, and how to interact with adults,” Comb said. “A lot of those subtle little things about strategy, talking about those things and how you present yourself, he does really well. That’s pretty advanced for an eighth grader.”

It was the third time Mulay qualified for the regional spelling bee. He says he competed in fifth and sixth grade. He’s also the second student to ever represent the Novi Community School District at the nationals, the first since Mahati Vavilala won the 2011 regional title.

Vavilala, who graduated from Novi High School in 2015, just finished her second year at Georgia Institute of Technology, where she’s studying industrial engineering.

Mulay says he’s always liked words and estimates that he studies about a thousand new words each year. As for how he first got involved in spelling bees, he says it was suggested by his mother, Minal.

“My mom’s friend, her son is a senior now, just graduating, and he did it,” Mulay said. “So she told my mom about it.”

While Mulay has participated in numerous bee events, he says more than confidence sometimes goes into winning them.

“I’d say there’s some confidence and a very, very large amount of luck,” he said. “But no reason to be nervous because there’s not much you can do about the word that you get.”

Mulay admits he guesses at times, which was the case on duende, a word he was unfamiliar with before clinching the regional win two months ago.

“It’s great that I get to represent my school on such a national level,” he said. “I’m pretty excited to meet all of the other people that are going to be doing the same thing.”

The experience of going to Washington and competing against students from around the country will be a little different. But Mulay expects the waiting around between words will be about the same.

“Usually,” he said, “you just sit there and try to spell the word given to the guy on stage.”

Mulay can become the second speller from Michigan to win the national title in its 90-year history. Detroit Country Day’s L.E. Sissman, was the 1941 champion.

This year’s winner will receive $40,000 in cash and a $2,500 savings bond, among other prizes.

PAST OAKLAND PRESS REGIONAL SPELLING BEE CHAMPIONS
1996 – Sudheer Potru, Van Hoosen Middle School, Rochester Hills
1997 – Nicole Granroth, Highland Middle School, Highland Township
1998 – Jeff Walden, St. Matthew Lutheran School, Walled Lake
1999 – Jeff Walden, St. Matthew Lutheran School, Walled Lake
2000 – Jeff Walden, St. Matthew Lutheran School, Walled Lake
2001 – Tim Sweda, West Hills Middle School, West Bloomfield
2002 – Jennie Sweda, West Hills Middle School, West Bloomfield
2003 – Mari Arul, Detroit Country Day Middle School, Beverly Hills
2004 – Aaron Bekemeyer, Holy Name School, Birmingham
2005 – Forrest Brazeal, Home School, Clarkston
2006 – Forrest Brazeal, Home School, Clarkston
2007 – Nithya Vijayakumar, Detroit Country Day Middle School, Beverly Hills
2008 – Sidharth Chand, Detroit Country Day Middle School, Beverly Hills
2009 – Sidharth Chand, Detroit Country Day Middle School, Beverly Hills
2010 – Kirk Hansen, Waldon Middle School, Orion Township
2011 – Mahati Vavilala, Novi Middle School, Novi
2012 – Kuvam Nirad Shahane, Reuther Middle School, Rochester Hills
2013 – Kuvam Nirad Shahane, Reuther Middle School, Rochester Hills
2014 – Nikhil Dwibhashyam, Scripps Middle School, Orion Township
2015 – Neha Middela, Detroit Country Day Middle School, Beverly Hills
2016 – Divya Aggarwal, Smith Middle School, Troy
2017 – Varad Mulay, Novi Middle School, Novi

Photo courtesy of Novi schools