A team from Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School will compete as a wild-card qualifier on WGBH’s High School Quiz Show tournament early next year. The six students (including core member Gray Birchby of Lincoln) will face off against Buckingham Browne & Nichols (BBN) on Saturday, Feb. 5 at 6 p.m.
High School Quiz Show is a fast-paced, bracketed academic competition for teams of Massachusetts high school students. Seventeen teams made the cut from 72 that competed in Super Sunday, a 50-question quiz in November. The wild cards were the two teams with the next-highest scores that have not been previously featured on the show, or haven’t competed in five or more years.
Among the top 17 qualifiers are returning Season 9 champion Andover High School (which will face the winner of the wild-card contest on February 19); Lexington High School, which took home the trophy in Seasons 7 and 8; and defending Season 12 champion Belmont High School. Three teams will make their High School Quiz Show debuts: Canton High School, Notre Dame Academy, and BBN. The other qualifiers are the British International School of Boston, Hopkinton High School, Mansfield High School, Mystic Valley Regional Charter School, North Quincy High School, Sharon High School, Shrewsbury High School, the Bromfield School, Westford Academy, and Weston High School.
In addition to Birchby, the L-S team comprises fellow core members Jack Grosberg, Henry Hurtt-Rensko, and Spencer Reith, and alternates Kenneth Hawkey and Cameron Cho. The team’s coach is Spanish and French teacher Desiree Butter, who began coaching the same year she started teaching at L-S a decade ago.
“When we first competed, the number of schools were less than half what they have today,” Butter said. “It’s been quite an experience to be able to compete with so many schools in the area.”
Aside from “Jeopardy!”, High School Quiz Show is the most popular academic quiz show on American television. In the 12 previous seasons, more than 700 students from over 70 schools across the Commonwealth have competed on the program.
During the tournament, teams of four will play remotely as Billy Costa moderates from WGBH studios in Brighton. The 2022 state championship will take place on May 21. Questions on the show are aligned with the Massachusetts high school curriculum standards in subjects that include literature, history, civics, science and math, as well as current events and general knowledge.