EVERETT — Kent Simpson has faced countless intimidating situations during his hockey career. The Everett Silvertips goaltender stood between the pipes during a Game 7 of a WHL playoff series. He stared down NHL star Marian Hossa as Hossa came in on a breakaway during the dying seconds of a training camp scrimmage.
But he’s never faced anything quite like this.
Simpson is one of six Silvertips players who are participating in the Everett Public Library’s Spelldown, an adult spelling bee which takes place at 7 p.m. tonight at the Everett Performing Arts Center.
“This is way more intimidating,” Simpson said with a laugh. “I’m not sure what to expect.”
Tonight’s event, which is a fundraiser for the library’s teen and youth programs, pits teams of three in a spelling competition. The Silvertips are entering two teams. The Herald also is entering a team.
And the Tips are eager to take part.
“We thought it would be a great idea to get some of our guys involved,” Tips director of media relations Jon Rosen said. “Anything that helps out raising money for a good local cause, while also enhancing the camaraderie among some of our guys, I think it’s healthy. Our players are really excited for it.”
Having the Tips participate in a spelling bee may seem counterintuitive, as teenage hockey players aren’t typically associated with spelling acumen. However, the Tips are confident of their abilities, at least in jest.
“Oh, I can spell,” Tips speller Tyler Maxwell insisted. “I have T9 (predictive text) on my text messaging, but I can spell.”
No, the Tips aren’t expecting to prevail in the Spelldown. However, they’ve found a way to get the competitive juices flowing anyway by breaking their two teams down by nationality. The trio of Maxwell, Josh Birkholz and Markus McCrea will represent the United States, while the team of Kellan Tochkin, Kent Simpson and Evan Morden is waving the Canadian flag.
Which means there’s plenty of national pride on the line.
“It’s team pride, see who’s smarter, the Americans or the Canadians,” McCrea said.
“I mean it’s obvious, but we just have to go prove it,” Birkholz quickly added.
Tochkin had his own retort on behalf of the Canadians: “Canada’s always beating the U.S. in hockey, so we might as well do it in the spelling bee.”
Both teams have been preparing furiously for the competition as they attempt to prove both their own and their country’s spelling superiority.
Well, maybe not that furiously.
Said Simpson: “I whipped out the dictionary last night, read a couple lines. But I only got a couple pages in, so we’ll see. I hope we get ‘A’ words.”
That’s still a little further than the Americans had gotten by Thursday afternoon.
“We just have to study a little bit,” McCrea said. “We’re going to go through the dictionary tonight, read it a couple times.”
The Canadians may find themselves handicapped. There are several words that are spelled differently in Canada than they are in the U.S. For example, in Canada it’s spelled “defence” while in the U.S. it’s “defense.” Also, Canadians spell it “labour” while Americans spell it “labor.”
Then again, perhaps the discrepancy will lead to some leniency from the judges, though the Canadian team isn’t counting on it.
“I think we’re the minorities, so I don’t know if it will go our way,” Simpson said.
But beyond the competition, the Tips are just looking forward to participating in the event and helping the library.
“I think it’s a lot about the charity,” Maxwell said. “Whatever we can do to help.”
Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog.
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