Spelldown champ treats family to DC trip

Spelldown Champ Nasir Simmons finally cashed in his prize trip to Washinton, DC, treating parents Jamahl and Sherri and brother Stephen.

April 28, 2012 — Children often get a trip overseas for the Easter holidays, but not many get to treat their parents to it. For 11-year-old Nasir Simmons, the break offered a chance to do exactly that: as the 2011 Spelldown champion, he took first place in the Island-wide spelling competition — and won a trip abroad as the grand prize.

A devoted fan of the Washington Wizards, Nasir took his family to Washington, DC’s Verizon Centre, where he had the opportunity to represent Bermuda in front of some of his sporting basketball heroes. “I am a very big fan of Washington, DC, and of all the Washington teams,” he said. “I’ve always liked teams that accept African-American players. But my favourite team is the Wizards, and we got to see them play Orlando Magic.”

The Simmons family managed to get Nasir and older brother Stephen backstage to talk sports with Wizards players Andray Blatche, Shelvin Mack, John Wall, and Jan Vesey, as well as New York Knicks basketball player Patrick Ewing. “He’s from Jamaica, and told me he’s from the islands too,” Nasir added. “I have to say, all the players were very outwardly friendly.”

The Somersfield Academy M1 student told *The Royal Gazette* he enjoyed writing, after winning the 2011 Spelldown. The hobby has since moved on to writing scripts, he said. Nasir has begun scripting short stop-motion films with friend Phil Miranphis. He explained: “We usually make parodies of popular movie scenes, using Lego figures. We’re using an iPad, which has an app that does stop-motion. Our lighting is not very good, and we could do with a bit better editing software.”

The friends are saving to purchase a Sony Handycam — but cannot count on another windfall from Nasir’s flair for spelling. Explained father Jamahl Simmons: “Nasir’s ‘reign’ as the Spelldown Champ will continue for another year, as there was no Spelldown this year.”

Originally published in The Royal Gazette