Meet the Concord High Granite State Challenge team

By Keith Testa - Feb 18, 2014 | 0 comments

Name: Matt BodwellGrade: SeniorSpecialty Category: Music, pop culture What did you enjoy the most about being on Granite State Challenge?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. What was the hardest category or question during the show?I would say the hardest category was probably literature, but for me personally it was probably science. What is the one thing you’d change about the Granite State Challenge experience?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. Which teammate would you least like to face in a one-on-one competition and why?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.

Name: Arthur AzniveGrade: JuniorSpecialty Category: Science, technology, math What did you enjoy the most about being on Granite State Challenge?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. What was the hardest category or question during the show?Sports, but that’s personal for me. They all know sports, but I don’t keep up with sports at all. What is the one thing you’d change about the Granite State Challenge experience?I’d add in more science questions because people should focus on science more. Which teammate would you least like to face in a one-on-one competition and why?Azwad. He knows way more than I do and he’s faster.

Name: Adi GandhiGrade: SeniorSpecialty Categories: Sciences What did you enjoy the most about being on Granite State Challenge?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. What was the hardest category or question during the show?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. What is the one thing you’d change about the Granite State Challenge experience?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. Which teammate would you least like to face in a one-on-one competition and why?I’d say Azwad, because he’s pretty much a cyborg when it comes to trivia. He would crush me.

Name: David BamideleGrade: SeniorSpecialty Categories: General knowledge, Greek mythology What did you enjoy the most about being on Granite State Challenge?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.’ What was the hardest category or question during the show?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. What is the one thing you’d change about the Granite State Challenge experience?Well, I would add another 200 points on to our score in the last game. Which teammate would you least like to face in a one-on-one competition and why?Marissa, definitely. She knows her stuff. Formidable opponent.

Name: Azwad IqbalGrade: JuniorSpecialty Categories: history, science What did you enjoy the most about being on Granite State Challenge?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. What was the hardest category or question during the show?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. What is the one thing you’d change about the Granite State Challenge experience?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. Which teammate would you least like to face in a one-on-one competition and why?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.

Name: Marissa SplendorGrade: JuniorSpecialty Categories: Geography, history, science, general knowledge What did you enjoy the most about being on Granite State Challenge?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. What was the hardest category or question during the show?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. What is the one thing you’d change about the Granite State Challenge experience?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. Which teammate would you least like to face in a one-on-one competition and why?Azwad. He’s really good at math and history and pretty much everything.

Name: Josh PiferGrade: SeniorSpecialty Categories: World geography, math, classic movies What did you enjoy the most about being on Granite State Challenge?I just love trivia. I watch Jeopardy every night and I love answering questions and with every question I answer I just feel like I’m a little bit smarter. What was the hardest category or question during the show?Literature. I don’t read much, unfortunately, so I didn’t really have any knowledge within the literature field. What is the one thing you’d change about the Granite State Challenge experience?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. Which teammate would you least like to face in a one-on-one competition and why?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.

This brainy group made it all the way to the round of 16, but are they smarter than Keith and Tim? (hint: yup!)