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When\u00a0Dev Shah won\u00a0the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 2023 and\u00a0Faizan Zaki took the title\u00a0last year, they posed for remarkably similar photos on the confetti-strewn stage. Standing next to them, beaming, was a bespectacled man in an aloha shirt, holding up a copy of his book \u201cWords of Wisdom.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Scott Remer, the champion spellers\u2019 coach, posing for a picture was more than just a celebration. It was a business necessity.<\/p>\n
While nearly every National Spelling Bee champion over the past 15 years has worked with a coach, the 32-year-old Remer is the country\u2019s only full-time tutor for elite spellers. Most coaches are former spellers who are still in college or even high school.<\/p>\n
When the field of 247 spellers at\u00a0this year\u2019s bee\u00a0\u2014 which begins Tuesday and concludes Thursday in Washington \u2014 is cut down to 10 or so finalists, it\u2019s all but inevitable the group will include multiple Remer students.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s probably one of the most influential figures in spelling over the past 10 years,\u201d said Shah, now 17.<\/p>\n
Remer has coached five national champions, and since the bee emerged from the pandemic disruptions of 2020 and \u201921, he has scaled up the coaching profession. He claims 34 spellers as his students this year and has worked with no fewer than 29 during each of the past four bees.<\/p>\n
He charges more than other coaches: up to $180 for an hourlong private lesson. If spellers finish in the top 10 and earn a cash prize, he receives up to 10% of their winnings, which he called \u201ca performance-based bonus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many spellers and their families believe Remer is worth it \u2014 despite, or perhaps because of, the intense personality that emerges during his lessons.<\/p>\n
Always earnest and gregarious on any spelling-related topic, Remer describes coaching as a passion that grew out of his disappointing fourth-place finish in 2008, his final year as a speller. He says he\u2019s motivated by sharing his knowledge, helping kids reach their potential and the challenge of discovering spelling bee-worthy words.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is really about the love of language and the love of the competition. Part of it is once you\u2019re stung by the bee, there\u2019s kind of no going back,\u201d Remer said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to deny that it pays well, because it does. But I don\u2019t know that there\u2019s anything wrong with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The last two champions he coached say he was crucial to their victories.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though his classes are more expensive, it\u2019s definitely worth it,\u201d Faizan said. \u201cI saw results.\u201d<\/p>\n
Faizan\u2019s father, Zaki Anwar, said he negotiated a reduced rate of $120 an hour for Remer\u2019s services because Faizan was already an accomplished speller. Remer took home 7% of the champion\u2019s prize haul of $52,500 \u2014 a bonus of $3,675.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter winning, it doesn\u2019t really matter,\u201d Anwar said.<\/p>\n
Expensive and demanding, Remer is not for everyone<\/p>\n
Remer drills his students on roots, language patterns and the exceptions to those patterns. He seeks to instill a deep understanding of languages that will allow spellers to figure out a word even if they have never seen or heard it before, as Shah did with \u201crommack\u201d in 2023.<\/p>\n
But Remer\u2019s pricing, and his coaching style, have led some spellers to seek help elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found it prohibitively expensive,\u201d said\u00a0Navneeth Murali, a University of Pennsylvania student who competed through 2020 and now coaches spellers, charging roughly $50 for an hourlong lesson. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a realistic option for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grace Walters, who coached\u00a02022 champion Harini Logan, charges $75 an hour. She and Murali take a handful of students each year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very much quality over quantity. It\u2019s really important to me that I\u2019m able to get to know each speller as a whole person, not just as a speller, and tailor my curriculum to them as individuals,\u201d said Walters, a graduate student in linguistics at the University of Kentucky. \u201cBut I have to give credit where it\u2019s due: If everyone was doing it like me, there wouldn\u2019t be enough coaches for all the spellers out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sree Vidya Siliveri was coached by Remer before her 60th-place finish in 2024 but didn\u2019t respond well to his methods, said her father, Sreedhar Siliveri. She found a new coach and finished 10th in 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were looking for alternatives and found some of the fresh, like, high school students who can be friendlier and charge less,\u201d Sreedhar Siliveri said.<\/p>\n
Even spellers and their parents who swear by Remer say he can be brusque and demanding of his middle school-age pupils. Simone Kaplan, who finished runner-up to the\u00a0\u201cocto-champs\u201d of 2019, appreciated Remer\u2019s tough coaching but said it\u2019s not for everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cScott is a true logophile, a master of languages. He pushes his students to keep up with him,\u201d Kaplan said. \u201cThat can inspire some spellers to learn and succeed, but it can also leave a student feeling like they\u2019ve disappointed him if they don\u2019t spell every word right. And that\u2019s difficult for a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n
Remer said his goal is to be supportive while giving spellers the feedback they need to avoid repeating mistakes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI try to be tough but fair, and I also try to modulate my teaching methods, based on the kids\u2019 needs and the kids\u2019 personalities,\u201d he said. \u201cWhether I\u2019m always successful at that is I guess an open question.\u201d<\/p>\n
From the Ivy League to full-time spelling coach<\/p>\n
Remer graduated from Yale in 2016 and earned a master\u2019s degree from Cambridge a year later. His first study guide, \u201cWords of Wisdom: Keys to Success in the Scripps National Spelling Bee,\u201d was published in 2010, when he was a teenager. That was also the year he coached his first champion, Anamika Veeramani.<\/p>\n
He has published three other books and has worked for the Council on Foreign Relations and as the communications coordinator for an LGBTQ-friendly synagogue in New York. Since 2020, he has been a full-time spelling coach while also offering tutoring in Chinese, Spanish, writing and standardized test prep. Born and raised in the Cleveland suburbs, he now lives in Mexico City.<\/p>\n
Remer has written an op-ed about the bee for the Guardian every year since 2019. He emails out lists of his students and sends updates on their progress, calling them \u201cmy spellers\u201d even if they have multiple tutors. (Faizan had three coaches last year.) During bee week, Remer is a constant presence, giving lessons on-site and sitting with spellers\u2019 families while the television cameras roll.<\/p>\n
He knows he has to market himself, but he says he doesn\u2019t enjoy it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I\u2019m trying not to be particularly self-aggrandizing in general,\u201d Remer said, \u201cso if the question is, does it come naturally to me to do that sort of promotional and marketing work, the answer is no.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scripps, the Cincinnati-based media company that has run the bee for a century, does not endorse coaching, but Corrie Loeffler, the bee\u2019s executive director, described the practice as inevitable, given the intensity of the competition.<\/p>\n
Loeffler gently pushed back at the idea that any coach should claim credit for a speller\u2019s success.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard work, it\u2019s study ethic, it\u2019s perseverance,\u201d she said. \u201cThese kids are doing pretty incredible things at a really high level, especially at a young age, and I want them to be able to take credit for that themselves, knowing that it\u2019s a community and they\u2019ve had so much support along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
#Meet #32yearold #Americas #fulltime #spelling #bee #coach #charges #hour<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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