By Richard Bammer

Saying “I just wasn’t sure of myself,” Solano County elementary spelling champion Francisco Agbayani of Vacaville stumbled on “plumage” and was eliminated during Round 2 Saturday at the California State Elementary Bee.

“I feel pretty disappointed,” Agbayani, a sixth-grader at Browns Valley Elementary School, said after the event, held at the San Joaquin County Office of Education in Stockton. “I could have done better.”

His mother and spelling coach, Joannalyn Agbayani, noted that he misspelled “plumage” during practice, spelling it with two m’s instead of one.

“Sometimes the child is over-practiced,” said Joannalyn, calling spelling bees in general “a game of chance.”

via ‘Plumage’ trips up Vacaville youth at state spelling bee – The Reporter.