Chapel Hill Middle School student William Liu excels at everything he does. The eighth-grader is
an all A-plus student, an accomplished swimmer and a member of the All-State Band.
He added another honor to that list of accomplishments Thursday: 2026 Douglas County School System Spelling Bee Champion.
Liu correctly spelled A-L-L-E-R-G-E-N-I-C to win the Spelling Bee, which was held at Chapel Hill High School and sponsored by the Douglas County Association of Educators.
Silas Ranne from Brighten Academy finished as runner-up, and Ishmael Emeafor from Factory Shoals Elementary School claimed third place from the field of 29 school-level spelling bee winners.
Liu said he knew how to spell the winning word right away.
“The main way to identify words is I'll try and figure out what the root is and then prefixes or suffixes,” he said. “So I just saw that it was the word allergen and then plus ‘ic,’ so I knew how to spell it immediately.”
Liu said his favorite subject is math. In addition to excelling in academics, he swims the butterfly and freestyle for the Direct Current Swim Team and plays percussion in the band.
His mom, Jessica, said she speaks her native Chinese to her son at home, and he responds to her in English.
“I'm so proud of him,” she said.
As for his future, Liu said he’s not sure what he might study in college, but he hopes to continue swimming competitively at the highest level.
Dawn Taylor, DCSS Director of Literacy, praised the winner, finalists and district leadership for making this year’s Spelling Bee a success.
"We are very proud of our Spelling Bee winner and finalists,” Taylor said. “We look forward to them representing DCSS at the Regional Spelling Bee on February 28th. A sincere thank you goes out to everyone who contributed to the success of this event. I would especially like to thank Superintendent Dr. Trent North and the Board of Education for their continued support."