COEUR d'ALENE - It's no secret that Stacy Hudson is a diehard sports fan.

But those aware of the North Idaho College Communications and Marketing Director's love for all things Seahawk or Bulldog might not know she also loves a good spelling bee.

Hudson is well-acquainted with spelling competitions because NIC coordinates and hosts the North Idaho Regional Spelling Bee each year, and Hudson has been involved from the start. The bee, sponsored by The Press, celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.

There are 52 young spellers ready to compete Saturday morning on the NIC campus.

"I love that they're putting their time and energy into something competitive that's academic," Hudson said.

The fourth- through- eighth-grade students each qualified for the regional bee by first winning grade-level competitions in 11 participating public, private and home school districts from throughout the region.

This weekend's winner will receive a trip to Washington, D.C., to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in May. All expenses are paid by The Press.

As the spelling bee has grown through the years, so has the quality of the competition. The participants are beginning to realize there is more to winning a spelling bee than simply remembering words, Hudson said.

The Scripps Spelling Bee organization provides young spellers with study suggestions that include learning word patterns based on Greek and Latin word roots, and other language patterns.

"The level at which they compete impresses me. They're reciting and spelling words I've never seen before, and these are young students," Hudson said.

Mindy Patterson, who has coordinated the spelling bee for NIC since 2010, said she always found the idea of spelling bees unsettling, because as a child, she struggled with spelling.

"Watching some of these kids able to spell like this is amazing," Patterson said.

Glen Tappa's daughter, Cassie, an eighth-grader at Lakeland Jr. High in Rathdrum, is returning to the regional competition for the second consecutive year.

"I'm quizzing her. She took seventh last year and didn't even study," Tappa said. "Maybe she'll go all the way this year. This is her last chance."

Tappa said the list of words in the spelling bee study guide is lengthy.

"They're pretty challenging at this level. I was surprised," he said.

Cassie, who credits her spelling ability to a healthy reading habit, said she's excited and nervous about Saturday's competition.

"There are a lot of people there," she said.

Spelling bees are a new pursuit for 12-year-old Tristan Kruenegel, of Coeur d'Alene.

The Sorensen Elementary student's experience in his school district's sixth-grade competition was his first spelling bee. He said he was surprised to win, and get an invitation to the regional competition.

His winning word? "P-R-O-T-U-B-E-R-A-N-T."

Tristan's strategy is to dig deep into his study words. He said he reviews the word patterns of various languages and said he always "asks for the language" when presented with a word to spell.

Glenda Armstrong, the former Coeur d'Alene School District educator who helped get the North Idaho Regional Spelling Bee going a decade ago, said the young spellers who make it to the national competition know and understand word etymology, the history of words.

"Those are context clues," Armstrong said, in a phone interview.

Getting children interested in words at an early age sparks a desire in them to be exposed to larger, "richer" words, and to understand their meanings, she said.

Armstrong, who was born and raised in Montana, worked for the Coeur d'Alene School District for 12 years, serving for the last three as principal of Dalton Elementary. She has been principal of Elrod Elementary in Kalispell, Mont. since September.

"Whenever I think about it (the North Idaho Regional Spelling Bee), I think this is amazing for kids," Armstrong said. "We had a real low-key one, and I thought, I've got to bring the spelling bee over here."

The North Idaho Regional Spelling Bee starts at 9 a.m. Saturday in Boswell Hall Schuler Performing Arts Center on NIC's main campus. It is open to the public.