COEUR d'ALENE - A burst of multicolored streamers rained upon 12-year-old Kendall Foster as his face lit up with joy and surprise.

"I was in shock, a lot," he said, still smiling after his victory.

The Canfield Middle School seventh-grader was declared the champion of the 12th annual North Idaho Regional Spelling Bee, held Saturday in North Idaho College's Schuler Auditorium.

Kendall will be representing Idaho in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. in May, where he will compete against spellers from across the country and from countries such as Korea, China, Ghana, Japan and Canada.

"I'm so excited because I've watched so many YouTube videos," Kendall said.

"He's been watching them and getting ready," said his mom, Tricia Foster of Hayden.

Kendall said he was "super stressed" and was experiencing some anxiety as he participated in the bee, but he was feeling pretty good after correctly spelling the championship word "yamen," which is defined by Merriam-Webster as "the headquarters or residence of a Chinese government official or department."

"It's awesome, he deserves it, he's studied so hard," said Kendall's dad, Derral Foster. "He has studied and studied and studied and studied, so he's done very well. We're very proud of him."

The bee began with about 50 contestants, fourth- through eighth-graders from throughout North Idaho. Several students advanced far into the 13-round tournament, until it was just Kendall and last year's champion, Coeur d'Alene Charter School eighth-grader Kiana Lacroix, who went out on the word "kovsh."

"I was excited because I knew she was going to go far but when it got to the end, I was like, 'What? She missed one?'" he said. "It scared me, but I just did it."

Contestants were asked to spell words such as haversack, chinchilla, layette, fiasco, canasta, bureaucracy, gulag, mahatma and poinsettia.

Naples Elementary School fifth-grader Tyler Stockdale, 11, of Bonners Ferry, was the first speller up to the microphone each round until he went out in round three. He said there is nothing quite like seeing the judges hit the green light, rather than the red light that is illuminated when spellers are incorrect.

"It feels like a heavy weight, like a million-pound weight has just been lifted off your shoulders," Tyler said. "It just feels really good, like you just got out of a fresh shower. You feel refreshed."

The 2015 bee went relatively fast compared to last year and was somewhat unpredictable, according to bee coordinator Mindy Patterson. She said she usually knows how it will go within a few rounds, but this bee was difficult to forecast. And the acceptance of an appeal was new for her this year. An appeal from an audience member stated that the alternate pronunciation of "peloton" was mispronounced, so Inland Northwest Christian Homeschoolers fifth-grader Joshua Bobbitt returned to the stage to spell a new word.

"This is the first appeal that I've ever accepted," Patterson said. "You don't get a lot of appeals."

Patterson said the regional spelling bee is an excellent opportunity for students to build their confidence and refine their public speaking skills.

"They go into high school, and definitely into college, they have tons of classes where they're going to have to be up in front of people," she said. "That is a huge deal for them. It's a great experience. Just the experience of being up here and having all the eyes on them, it gives them more confidence to say, 'I can be up in front of people.'"

She said the bee also provides students a good reason to build knowledge in their own minds and establish rich mental word banks.

"It is so important for kids now not to rely on their electronics, to know what they're talking about, know how to spell," she said. "It makes for a well-rounded kid."