IT'S HIS CHANCE TO BE LETTER PERFECT VALLEY SPELLING MASTER PREPARED FOR CHAMPIONSHIP.

Byline: Eugene Tong Staff Writer

VALENCIA - A 13-year-old who enjoys basketball and video games, Paul Yu also has a distinct knack for correctly spelling ``oeillade.''

``It means a coquettish glance,'' he said Thursday, eyes directed at a thick dictionary lying closed on his home dining table.

It's a skill the Arroyo Seco Junior High student will rely on this week in competition with 250 other young spellers at the 76th annual Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.

Yu qualified for the two-day competition that starts Wednesday when he correctly spelled ``roseate'' and ``verdigris'' to win the 17th annual Daily News Regional Spelling Bee in March.

In the meantime, he has spent roughly five hours a week reviewing root words, prefixes and suffixes for the competition - in between a regimen of school, homework, drum lessons and free time.

``I'm not too nervous yet,'' Yu said. ``But I'm not really there yet. Maybe once I get there.''

``Everybody has a lot of talent,'' said Andy Yu, Paul's father. ``If they don't maximize it, you're wasting the talent that God gave you.''

The trip to the National Spelling Bee isn't first for the Yu family. His sister Ashley, 15, competed the last two years.

``We just tell them to go there and have fun,'' mother Nevis Yu said.

Yu's parents, who are Chinese, immigrated to the United States from the Philippines in 1983. They soon noticed that the siblings shared an interest in language.

Nevis recalled her son, then 5, trying to play a video game with lengthy text and dialogue.

``I think that's how he learned to read,'' she said. ``He would say, mom, can you help me read this? When I don't have time, he'll try to read it himself.''

The family caught on to competitive spelling by chance, channel surfing past coverage on ESPN.

``Don't you think it would be cool to get there one day?,'' Andy Yu recalled telling his daughter, now a Valencia High student. ``It was a dream. We didn't know we could get there to begin with. If he placed in the top, it's just gravy.''

When the opportunity to compete arose two years ago, the couple urged their children to enter.

``But it has to go both ways,'' Andy Yu said. ``If you're not self-motivated, it doesn't matter. Parents cannot force you. It's not a job or something.''

Paul Yu appeared relaxed and quiet in his chair, his composed demeanor giving way to a slight grimace when the subject turned to video games or an outrageous adventure story he spun for school.

``Some of them die and stuff,'' he said, sketching a tale about a group of Arctic explorers. ``Some got eaten by polar bears.''

Asked about his career goals, Yu said he hadn't made up his mind. But he is interested in designing video games, or at least running a game store.

``I would have to stop spelling and see,'' he said.

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- ran in Valley edition only) Paul Yu, 13, of Valencia, who won the Daily News regional spelling bee in March, will compete in the Scripps Howard national event that begins Wednesday.

(2 -- color -- ran in SAC edition only) Paul Yu, 13, of Valencia, who won the Daily News spelling bee, will compete in the national event that begins Wednesday.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer