Meet the Concord High Granite State Challenge team

 </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>Name</b>: Matt Bodwell</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>Grade</b>: Senior</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>Specialty Category</b>: Music, pop culture</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica; min-height: 11.0px"> </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.2px"><b>What did you enjoy the most about being on Granite State Challenge?</b></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.2px">I think what I enjoyed the most was working as a team, but also picking up knowledge. I know it kind of sounds cliche but when I first heard about doing a trivia team it sounded like it’s just going to be like school, but it’s actually a lot of fun. A really great experience, not only expanding my realm of knowledge, but making a lot of good friends too.</span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica; min-height: 11.0px"> </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.2px"><b>What was the hardest category or question during the show?</b></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.2px">I would say the hardest category was probably literature, but for me personally it was probably science.</span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica; min-height: 11.0px"> </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.2px"><b>What is the one thing you’d change about the Granite State Challenge experience?</b></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.2px">I personally would have put a lot more time into this, into studying outside of our team practices. I was an alternate and I think if I would have put more time into reading and studying maybe I could have been one of the four starters.</span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica; min-height: 11.0px"> </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.2px"><b>Which teammate would you least like to face in a one-on-one competition and why?</b></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3px">I wouldn’t want to face Marissa in a one-on-one. She knows everything. It’s amazing. I don’t even know how. I think when she hears something it just stays in there forever.</span>

 </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>Name</b>: Arthur Aznive</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>Grade</b>: Junior</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>Specialty Category</b>: Science, technology, math</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica; min-height: 11.0px"> </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>What did you enjoy the most about being on Granite State Challenge?</b></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica">Probably just competing with other people who are at a similar level of knowledge as you. Because you’re all very smart people and you’re all competing against each other.</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica; min-height: 11.0px"> </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>What was the hardest category or question during the show?</b></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica">Sports, but that’s personal for me. They all know sports, but I don’t keep up with sports at all.</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica; min-height: 11.0px"> </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>What is the one thing you’d change about the Granite State Challenge experience?</b></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica">I’d add in more science questions because people should focus on science more.</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica; min-height: 11.0px"> </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>Which teammate would you least like to face in a one-on-one competition and why?</b></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica">Azwad. He knows way more than I do and he’s faster.

 </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>Name</b>: Adi Gandhi</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>Grade</b>: Senior</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>Specialty Categories</b>: Sciences</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica; min-height: 11.0px"> </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>What did you enjoy the most about being on Granite State Challenge?</b></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica">Just being able to learn new topics, things that you wouldn’t necessarily learn in school. It’s just a fun, unique activity that not many people get to do. You learn a lot of random stuff.</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica; min-height: 11.0px"> </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>What was the hardest category or question during the show?</b></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica">Literature. I’m not big into the humanities. I was clueless in a lot of things, but I got more involved in the Shakespeare plays and all that stuff. I’ll get better at it.</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica; min-height: 11.0px"> </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>What is the one thing you’d change about the Granite State Challenge experience?</b></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica">How the season is set up. If they had it either longer or gave schools more of an opportunity to be a part of it. I know the television time is pretty tough, but if they made it a little longer and had more schools participate, I think it would be better.</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica; min-height: 11.0px"> </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>Which teammate would you least like to face in a one-on-one competition and why?</b></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica">I’d say Azwad, because he’s pretty much a cyborg when it comes to trivia. He would crush me.

 </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>Name</b>: David Bamidele</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>Grade</b>: Senior</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>Specialty Categories</b>: General knowledge, Greek mythology</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica; min-height: 11.0px"> </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>What did you enjoy the most about being on Granite State Challenge?</b></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica">It might be kind of weird, but it was kind of cool seeing how much more other people knew, and just what everyone else here knew. It was a lot different because in school you don’t really get to focus in on random knowledge. It’s more of ‘do you remember what you read or can you remember this?’ This was a lot of remembering things, but not things you would think ‘I need to remember this.’</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica; min-height: 11.0px"> </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>What was the hardest category or question during the show?</b></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica">We had some really weird ones that no one was expecting that just came out of nowhere. For me, the geography questions were probably the hardest because that’s an area that I have the least amount of expertise in.</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica; min-height: 11.0px"> </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>What is the one thing you’d change about the Granite State Challenge experience?</b></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica">Well, I would add another 200 points on to our score in the last game.</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica; min-height: 11.0px"> </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>Which teammate would you least like to face in a one-on-one competition and why?</b></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica">Marissa, definitely. She knows her stuff. Formidable opponent.

 </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>Name</b>: Azwad Iqbal</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>Grade</b>: Junior</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>Specialty Categories</b>: history, science</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica; min-height: 11.0px"> </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>What did you enjoy the most about being on Granite State Challenge?</b></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica">I just love trivia. I just like engaging in that kind of activity. I love just how quick you have to be, how you have to think on your feet and use a really large breadth of knowledge. And challenge yourself that way and compete, obviously.</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica; min-height: 11.0px"> </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>What was the hardest category or question during the show?</b></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica">Hardest for me definitely and for the team overall was literature because a decent number of questions were about literature and that wasn’t anything any of us really specialized in so that was something we really tried to work on throughout the season.</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica; min-height: 11.0px"> </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>What is the one thing you’d change about the Granite State Challenge experience?</b></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica">The actual show is really fast, so you only have like 20 minutes in the limelight and then it’s all over, unless of course you win. Definitely make it a little bit longer or more of a continuous experience would make it more worthwhile.</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica; min-height: 11.0px"> </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>Which teammate would you least like to face in a one-on-one competition and why?</b></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica">Marissa. Definitely Marrissa. She’s probably the fastest kid on our team in terms of the buzzer, and she has a really strong knowledge base.

<b>Name</b>: Marissa Splendor</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10px; font: normal normal normal 9px/normal Helvetica; "><b>Grade</b>: Junior</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10px; font: normal normal normal 9px/normal Helvetica; "><b>Specialty Categories</b>: Geography, history, science, general knowledge</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10px; font: normal normal normal 9px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 11px; "> </p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10px; font: normal normal normal 9px/normal Helvetica; "><b>What did you enjoy the most about being on Granite State Challenge?</b></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10px; font: normal normal normal 9px/normal Helvetica; ">I’m really competitive and I like winning things, so there’s that. But I just really like answering questions, I guess because I have lots of useless, trivial knowledge and this finally gives me an outlet for that.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10px; font: normal normal normal 9px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 11px; "> </p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10px; font: normal normal normal 9px/normal Helvetica; "><b>What was the hardest category or question during the show?</b></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10px; font: normal normal normal 9px/normal Helvetica; ">I am not good at the fine arts or anything like that, like the painters and paintings. That was the hardest one to really learn about and the hardest one when they’d ask us questions for anyone to get it.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10px; font: normal normal normal 9px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 11px; "> </p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10px; font: normal normal normal 9px/normal Helvetica; "><b>What is the one thing you’d change about the Granite State Challenge experience?</b></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10px; font: normal normal normal 9px/normal Helvetica; ">I think it would be really cool if they could extend the season. So it’s more than single elimination, because it’s so short, it’s over before you know it.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10px; font: normal normal normal 9px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 11px; "> </p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10px; font: normal normal normal 9px/normal Helvetica; "><b>Which teammate would you least like to face in a one-on-one competition and why?</b></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10px; font: normal normal normal 9px/normal Helvetica; ">Azwad. He’s really good at math and history and pretty much everything.

 </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>Name:</b> Josh Pifer</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>Grade:</b> Senior</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>Specialty Categories:</b> World geography, math, classic movies</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica; min-height: 11.0px"> </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>What did you enjoy the most about being on Granite State Challenge?</b></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica">I just love trivia. I watch <i>Jeopardy</i> every night and I love answering questions and with every question I answer I just feel like I’m a little bit smarter.</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica; min-height: 11.0px"> </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>What was the hardest category or question during the show?</b></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica">Literature. I don’t read much, unfortunately, so I didn’t really have any knowledge within the literature field.</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica; min-height: 11.0px"> </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>What is the one thing you’d change about the Granite State Challenge experience?</b></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica">Apart from going all the way and winning, I feel like I could have put in a little bit more training and effort into it. So I feel if I would have done that I would have been more of a presence on the team and been able to answer more questions.</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica; min-height: 11.0px"> </p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica"><b>Which teammate would you least like to face in a one-on-one competition and why?</b></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 10.8px; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px Helvetica">Marissa. She’s really, really, really fast and she just knows everything. She’s about the only one in terms of buzzer speed that I can’t beat.