By Valerie Franchi, Contributing Writer
Shrewsbury – A team of six Shrewsbury High School (SHS) students will test their knowledge when they compete on the sixth season of WGBH TV’s “High School Quiz Show” Jan. 31 in Boston.
Shrewsbury’s team is made up of senior co-captains David Du and Alex Todorov, senior Grant Xu, and juniors Mounith Madadi, Stephen Przybylek and Gokul Ajith.
One of 16 finalists, SHS was selected out of 120 public and private Massachusetts schools that tried out on “Super Sunday” Nov. 9.
Todorov said he had “slight doubts” about the team’s performance at Super Sunday.
“We didn’t actually think that we qualified,” added Du.
The team waited two long, anxious weeks before finding out they had advanced. Now, they are hoping to go further than any previous SHS quiz team to win grants for their school.
“This is the second time we have made it in the five years we have tried out,” explained Jenn DiFrancesca, director of social sciences at SHS and Quiz Club coordinator.
In 2012, the team earned a spot as one of the 16 finalists, but lost in the first round of single-elimination competition.
SHS’ Quiz Club, which was started five years ago specifically to participate in “High School Quiz Show,” has around 15 members, almost entirely boys, and meets once a week.
“The quiz teams are very male-dominated,” noted DiFrancesca. “Our team is not atypical.”
The current team has been busy preparing, studying previous quiz show questions, playing trivia games and practicing against each other and other members of the club. It’s hard to prepare, Du noted, because “there is such a wide range of topics” – everything from history, science and math to literature, art and pop culture.
“We are really strong in math and science,” he said, “but definitely weaker on art and literature.”
However, “a lot of the game is strategy,” Todorov said. “The hardest part is that we can’t talk among ourselves to figure out who is the best to answer the question.”
If a team member is not 100 percent sure of an answer, they must decide if it is better to wait to see if another member of their team will buzz in. They don’t want to wait too long, however, since the opposing team may beat them to the buzzer.
Also, a team can lose points by buzzing in too early and giving an incorrect answer.
The show, hosted by entertainment and news personality Billy Costa, will premiere Saturday, Feb. 7, on WGBH. SHS will face off against Belmont High School Saturday, Feb. 28.
The team all said they are not nervous about being on TV.
“They just don’t want to wear the make-up,” DiFrancesca joked.
Families, friends and community members are welcome to attend the tapings Jan. 24 and 25. For more information and to register, visit http://www.wgbh.org/quizshow/. Full episodes will be available after broadcast on highschoolquizshow.org and youtube.com/HighSchoolQuizShow.