Two Coeur d'Alene students compete at Scripps National Spelling Bee
Harper Adams, 13, and Chase Miller, 12, put Kootenai Classical Academy on the Scripps stage in Washington, D.C., even though both were eliminated Tuesday.
Two Kootenai Classical Academy students from Coeur d'Alene stood on one of the country’s biggest academic stages this week, competing at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., in the 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee. Harper Adams, 13, and Chase Miller, 12, gave Kootenai County a rare national moment in a competition that began with 247 spellers and drew families, educators and cameras back to the nation’s capital for the first time in 15 years.
Both local students were eliminated Tuesday morning, but qualifying for the bee was itself a major accomplishment. Harper Adams was eliminated in the vocabulary round. Chase Miller was eliminated in the spelling round and finished tied for 196th place. His official Scripps result page lists him as a sixth-grader from Coeur d’Alene representing Idaho Character Foundation, underscoring that his run reached beyond one school and into Idaho’s broader spelling-bee pathway.
The 2026 bee ran May 26-28, with bee week starting Sunday, May 24, when spellers registered at the JW Marriott Washington, D.C. Scripps said the event included more than the televised rounds, with educational workshops, excursions in Washington and other activities for spellers and their families. The organization also said the competition is the nation’s largest and longest-running educational program, dating to June 17, 1925, when nine participants took part. This year’s champion was Shrey Parikh of Rancho Cucamonga, California, who won after correctly spelling 32 of 35 words in a 90-second spell-off and became the 111th champion.
For Coeur d’Alene and Kootenai County, the sight of two middle schoolers from Kootenai Classical Academy on that stage offers a different kind of local headline: one about academic ambition, not courtrooms or crime scenes. Harper’s and Chase’s profiles also showed the interests behind the contestants. Harper likes volleyball, pastel blue, Nerds Gummy Clusters, lake-time summers, local coffee stands and Lotus drinks. Chase enjoys steak, the movie Interstellar and hockey, and he lists Patrick Henry as his favorite historical figure.
Their trip raises a practical local question as well: whether similar spelling-bee and academic-enrichment opportunities exist across Kootenai County schools, or whether they are concentrated in a few programs and families able to build the path themselves. In a week when national attention often turns elsewhere, two Coeur d’Alene students showed that North Idaho can still send sharp, prepared young scholars to one of the country’s most visible academic stages.
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