What country won the 2022 FIFA World Cup? Ancient Nubia was located in which present day country? And how many diagonals does a triangle have?
If you answered Argentina, Sudan and zero, you might have what it takes to join Marblehead High School’s newest team.
Juniors Philip Gaber and Owen Fine, both 16, are bringing a little brainpower — and some friendly competition — to MHS as they prepare to take on high schools from across Massachusetts on GBH’s “High School Quiz Show.”
The two friends have recruited a six-member team, enlisted a teacher as an adviser and organized multiple rounds of tryouts, all in hopes of earning a spot on the televised academic competition.
And they’re doing something that, according to the students, Marblehead High has never done before: field a team for the show.
It all started with a grandmother’s suggestion and a childhood television habit.
Gaber first learned about the WGBH High School Quiz Show several years ago when his grandmother encouraged him to watch and then participate. There was just one problem: He was only in middle school.
Fine, meanwhile, grew up watching the competition with his father.
“’Jeopardy!’ was too hard for me when I was little, so we’d watch this, and I’d be pretty decent at it,” Fine recalled.
This summer, Gaber pitched the idea of starting a team, and the two got to work.
They approached teachers, secured English teacher Jenn Billings as their adviser and began recruiting students who could hold their own in subjects ranging from science and history to literature, geography, sports and pop culture.
More than two dozen students expressed interest. Gaber and Fine administered written trivia tests using questions from previous GBH qualifying competitions and gradually narrowed the field.
But they weren’t simply looking for the students with the highest scores.
The students, who both consider history and geography among their strengths, wanted teammates who knew things they didn’t.
“We want to cover as many bases as possible,” Gaber explained.
That meant placing a premium on students with expertise in subjects such as literature and the arts, rather than loading the roster with fellow history buffs.
After several rounds of testing, the students assembled a team spanning three grade levels.
Joining Gaber and Fine on the four-person competing squad are junior Daphne Seliger and freshman Cooper Wilson. Senior Charlotte Gray and junior Will Benning are alternates.
The team will face its first major challenge Nov. 1, when students travel to Brighton for GBH’s Super Sunday qualifying event.
There, the four primary competitors will collaborate on a written test covering 10 subject categories. The 15 highest-scoring teams automatically advance, while a wild-card competition determines the final spot in the 16-team television tournament.
If Marblehead qualifies, the students could find themselves under the studio lights in January, competing in a fast-paced contest that rewards quick thinking, broad knowledge and nerves of steel.
In some rounds, teammates can confer before answering. In others, it’s every contestant for themselves, racing to hit the buzzer before an opponent.
A wrong answer can cost a team valuable points.
Gaber, who plays piano and has experience performing onstage, knows the spotlight can be intimidating.
“I think the first time will be difficult for everybody,” he said. “But I think it’s just something that you need to adjust to.”
Fine thinks facing the challenge together will help.
They hope to practice with actual buzzers to simulate the show’s atmosphere and may organize team dinners and gatherings at one another’s homes.
Getting comfortable with teammates is just as important as knowing the answers, Gaber said, especially because some of the students barely knew each other before tryouts.
There’s also a longer-term goal.
The juniors hope the quiz show club will become a lasting MHS tradition, with younger students eventually taking over.
That’s one reason they were particularly pleased to recruit a freshman.
If the team succeeds, they hope Wilson and Billings can help keep the program going after the older students graduate.
As for the grand prize, the winning school receives $1,000 and a trophy.
But Gaber and Fine have their eyes on something else, too: the chance to represent Marblehead on television, compete against some of the state’s brightest students and perhaps bring home bragging rights.
