Cooper Campen, a 12-year-old homeschooled sixth-grader, won the Alachua County Spelling Bee on Wednesday. Campen beat 35 other spellers from 32 schools. 

“I feel absolutely amazing,” Campen said in a phone interview. “In fact, the crazy thing is a lot of people don’t even know that homeschoolers could compete.” 

Campen will go on to represent the district in the 80th Annual First Coast Regional Spelling Bee in March 15. If he wins there, he will go on to the Scripps National Spelling Bee, where last year’s Alachua County winner went on to the semifinals. 

Last year, Campen was eliminated in the third round of the district spelling bee. He lost on the word “symmetry.” This year, he won with the word “rasorial,” an adjective referring to a bird scratching the ground for food. 

“If at first you don’t succeed,” Campen said, “then you know next year you need to work even harder to try, and win.” 

This year, Campen dug into preparation. He used an app published by Scripps to study, print out and highlight the words he missed. Sometimes, he said he would feel like giving up, but his mother, who is his homeschool teacher, would encourage him to see it through. 

Campen and his mother and brother would take the printed word lists and recreate a spelling bee setting in the house, including a bell for his brother to use if Campen got the word wrong. 

“I love that we can challenge them in different ways that they might not be challenged in a traditional school setting,” Campen’s mother, Shirley Campen, said in a phone interview. “And that we can make learning innovative for them in different ways that have to do with their talents and their hobbies and things that they like to do.” 

Campen said some of the most difficult words are the ones that don’t follow spelling rules, but knowing the root language can be helpful to figure out what exceptions they follow. For example, “krausen” (pronounced “kroizen”) is a German word, so Campen said he can figure out that it would be spelled with a K instead of a C, and that the “oi” sound would be made by an “au.” 

Campen learned to read when he was 3 years old, and his mother said he has been a strong and voracious reader ever since. Campen said that love of reading launched him into an interest in spelling, and last year he tried the district spelling bee. 

“It’s way more intense than any sport I’ve ever watched,” Campen’s father, Brad Campen, wrote in an email. “There are no rebounds, or assists, or team to help you. You are on your own. One wrong letter and you are out!”