Local High Schoolers Get Their Buzzers Ready

Following wins in their first rounds of the competition, the second-round of MSG Varsity's "The Challenge" will match up teams from the in Stamford and in Westport. The competition will air next Tuesday, March 29, at 5:30 pm on MSG Varsity.

“The Challenge” is a quiz show that matches up teams from 184 high schools across the tri-state area. After the Connecticut competitions and finals, finalists will move on to compete against teams from high schools in New York and New Jersey. One school will eventually be crowned Tri-State Champion and receive $10,000 in prize money. Each student participant in the final Challenge Championship game also receives $500.  

The program is hosted by Jared Cotter, semi-finalist from season six of “American Idol.”

For AITE and Staples High School, practice for the competition begins early in the school year and continues throughout the fall and winter months.

At Staples High, students qualify through try-outs where the team's advisers look for well-rounded scholars who can give quick and accurate responses.

"We see how they do," Jim Goodrich, the Staples High team's academic advisor, said. "We look at the percentage they're answering correctly — if you buzz in, it's a good idea if the answer is correct."

After the team is in place, advisers try to create as realistic a setting as possible for practice. While they can't bring in the cameras and the lights, they can create an environment that allows them to practice the timing of the competition and how they will work together as a team.

“We meet on Thursdays, we have a buzzer system that we use and we watch old matches of The Challenge, pause and try to answer the questions. It’s fun, but it also gets them thinking,” Nicholas DeAntonis, academic adviser of AITE’s team, told Patch. “It’s important for the team to understand their strengths and weaknesses and know when to defer [to a teammate].”

"When you get [to the taping], of course you will have the nerves, but you'll have prepared and have the right background," Goodrich said. "All of the kids in these programs are smart."

The AITE team is made up of seniors Dmitri Freidenberg, Orlando Giacchetta, Chris Kremer, Alex Tannenbaum, and junior alternate Peter DeLuca.

“Orlando has been on the team since his sophomore year, he’s our science guy but also answers a lot of music questions. Chris is a strong team member, it was funny, we couldn’t tell what his niche was at first, he’s very strong in history, but also knows contemporary movies,” DeAntonis said.

While they try to select team members with strengths to cover all categories — literature, math, science, and history. Sometimes, doubling up in certain areas can be beneficial to the team.

“Alex is our math guy, but Dmitri is also math and science. It was helpful to have two people strong at math. The math questions are tough and they have to work quickly in their head,” DeAntonis said. “They both trusted each other and didn’t step on each others' toes.”

While four team members will be graduating this spring, DeAntonis knows that the team will be in good hands with DeLuca and other underclassmen waiting to qualify for a spot on the team.

“It’ll be a rebuilding year, but there’s already a lot of interest,” DeAntonis said.

Staples High School’s team is made up of seniors Gabriel Block, Joshua Greenberg, Petey Menz, Rachel Myers, and junior alternate Matthew Silver. Their academic advisers are Goodrich and Julia McNamee.

The team members are well-rounded students, many of whom compete in other academic competitions throughout the year. Greenberg specializes in math, Myers in the sciences, and Block is strong in the life sciences and the humanities. Silver, the team’s alternate, has twice won a national spelling bee.

“Petey Menz is editor of the newspaper here at Staples High School and our guru of everything in the humanities and popular culture,” Goodrich said.

Myers and Greenberg were both named semi-finalists in the 2011 Intel Science Talent Search, two of the 300 students to be honored in the country's most prestigious pre-college science competition.

“They’ve been a great group,” Goodrich said. “I've been doing this for the past four years and the kids who have been on the team, if they haven’t gone on to Ivy League schools, they’ve gone on to excellent schools, some of the best.”