Buckingham Browne & Nichols School won its second High School Quiz Show championship in dramatic fashion, coming from behind in the last round to defeat Sharon High School in a match which first aired on the High School Quiz Show YouTube Channel on May 14.
“Sharon was really tough and was leading for three rounds,” said BB&N coach Sam Crihfield, who teaches English at the school and coaches the team with math teacher Chip Rollinson. “The competition has gotten really strong in the past few years, and it’ll be interesting to see how it continues to grow.”
BB&N won its first title three years ago, and was runner-up the last two years, losing both times to Lexington High School. Crihfield said he and Rollinson were cautiously confident this season. “We were aware that we have a strong team, but we have also seen a lot of teams be really impressive in the past several years.”
Team captain Andreas Bai said he thought the team had a real chance after Lexington lost In its first-round match, which he said “shocked” the BB&N team.
“This was one of the most competitive seasons we’ve ever had,” said Hillary Wells, executive producer of High School Quiz Show. “Teams are preparing at a sort of level that they haven’t before.”
BB&N beat four opponents on their way to securing the championship, including Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in the first round. But matches were tight.
According to senior You-Yan Wang, the team outscored opponents by 520 points in the final “Lightning Round” format, including in its closest match, where BB&N trailed Belmont High School with just three seconds left. The host, Dr. Joe Hanson, started the final question, “In the late 18th century, what became the main language … ” and Bai buzzed in as the clock hit zero, answering “French.” That was the right answer, securing a dramatic victory, with the studio erupting in cheers and gasps, which coach Rollinson said via email was “quite an experience.”
Bai wrote “I just went ‘French’ based off the ‘18th Century’ part. I’m still in shock today as to how that unfolded.”
In the final, BB&N again needed late heroics. Behind after three rounds, it had another strong final round, securing the points it needed to lift the cup.
The victory brings with it a prize of $1,000. BB&N’s quiz bowl team has now won $3,000 in the last three years, $1,000 for both its victories and $500 for its second-place finishes. Part of the money has been used to buy buzzer sets for team practices.
Several team members are graduating and headed to college — including Alec Bailey, the team’s only Cambridge-based member. Returning players, including Bai, are already working to prepare for next season and grow the quiz bowl at BB&N.
He and sophomore starter Dean Riaz have been part of a team efforts to secure an Innovation Grant from the school to create a middle school quiz bowl team and host a quiz bowl competition.
Bai hopes to expand the quiz bowl community at the school beyond the group of friends who make up its players, so “people from all sorts of backgrounds and with all sorts of knowledge to be able to demonstrate their uniqueness through trivia.”
“Trivia is sometimes overlooked, and we wanted to put it front and center in our community so people could discover new hobbies, skills or just meet new people,” added Riaz. Coach Crihfield shared how years ago, one student learned the names of famous poets in preparation for the show, which sparked his interest in poetry. To Crihfield, that curiosity is what makes trivia meaningful. “As an educator, I think trivia and the Quiz Show are a great, because they can be a gateway to curiosity.”
A stronger
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