When the Scripps National Spelling Bee begins in Washington on Tuesday, a 32-year-old former speller in an aloha shirt will be watching closely from the audience. Scott Remer is the only full-time, professional spelling coach in the country, and his students — among them the last two national champions — are once again expected to dominate the finals of a competition that has drawn 247 spellers to the nation’s capital this week.
Remer’s journey into the spelling-coaching business began after his own modest career as a competitor. He competed in the 2008 and 2009 bees but never came close to winning, he told the Associated Press. The summer after his freshman year of college, he started tutoring younger spellers. More than a decade later, he estimates he has worked with about 500 children, coaching a few dozen in any given year through hourlong Zoom sessions built on a curriculum of books, websites, and his own word lists.
His results have made him a coveted asset for families aiming for the trophy. Dev Shah won the bee in 2023 and Faizan Zaki claimed the title in 2024, both after training with Remer. In the celebratory photos that followed each victory, Remer stood beside his students holding a copy of his book, “Words of Wisdom.” He told the AP he now works 60 to 70 hours a week and earns a middle-class living, charging up to $180 an hour — though he said many families pay less and some pay nothing.
But Remer’s success has also drawn pushback from within the close-knit spelling community. Grace Walters, a former coach who guided the 2018 and 2019 champions and now works for Scripps, said the professionalization of coaching threatens the spirit of the event.
“I think if you feel like you need coaching, that’s when we start getting into an arms race,” Walters said. “It becomes a financial arms race that I don’t agree with.”
Walters acknowledged that winning without a coach is still possible, but said it has become much harder. Her criticism echoes broader concerns that the bee — long championed as a meritocratic celebration of academic effort — is increasingly tilted toward families with the resources to pay for elite preparation.
Remer pushed back against the characterization. “I don’t see it as controversial,” he said. “I’m providing a service that families want.” He added that the benefits of his coaching extend beyond spelling. “You learn a lot about yourself and you learn discipline,” he said.
While Remer is the only coach who does the work full-time, he is far from the only one in the field. Over the past 15 years, nearly every spelling bee champion has worked with a coach, though most tutors are former spellers who are still in high school or college. The bee’s finals air Thursday night, and Remer’s students are likely to be among the last few standing.