A teenager from Holyoke, Massachusetts, has returned a champion from a national Scrabble tournament in Buffalo, New York.
Fourteen-year-old Evan Yurko beat almost 60 adults and 12-year-old to win the Division Four championship. Yurko recently graduated from JFK Middle School in Northampton.
"I started playing Scrabble in sixth grade competitively," he said. "I originally joined the school Scrabble club so I could beat my mom."
Yurko said he spent about two and a half hours a day studying and playing to prepare. His said top-scoring word was profiler, which was worth 93 points.
He called his victory a dream come true and plans to compete next year in a higher level.
