BY RYAN O’CONNOR

Making it through two rounds and into the quarterfinals of Granite State Challenge, Hopkinton High School was defeated by Hollis-Brookline High School 285-220 points in a match televised on New Hampshire Public Television on April 5.

“We would have liked to go further, but it was a good, positive experience for all and we really supported each other well,” said principal and coach Steve Chamberlin. “It was a great group of kids and we all love trivia, so it was just a lot of fun for all of us to get the chance to go to Durham and compete with other schools.”

Though the competition has already completed, NHPTV runs only one match a week – usually Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

Granite State Challenge began airing in September and will conclude later this spring.

Chamberlin, who coached the team with social studies department head Matthew Krogman, said the students began organizing and practicing last spring and met consistently in the fall before and during the competition.
Hopkinton team members said many positives came from the experience.

“I think we all agreed it was a really good learning experience because we learned not just the trivia, but how to work as a team,” said senior Brad Ramsdell. “It was a good, healthy competition.”

Senior Andrew Meyer said if a couple of pieces had fallen into place his team could have won it all.

“I’d say it was a pretty successful season, but, to be honest, we had the stuff to go all the way and what it really
came down to was chance.”

Krogman said the team was tripped up in a round where each team had to choose its own category, each varying in an unknown level of difficulty.

There, he said, Hopkinton students selected physics, while Hollis-Brookline High School selected musical instruments.

As it turned out, said Krogman, Hopkinton’s category was arguably the most difficult, while their opponent went 10-for-10.

“One of the things we realized is the selection round, when you choose your own category, is a very important round,” he said. “It’s impossible to know the level of difficulty, and we got a topic that was pretty difficult for the average high school student.

“Now having said that, we played a very good team.”

Senior Brian Rowe noted even though his team lost, it could have matched up well with any other school in the state.

“I thought we had a really strong team this year and I had a lot of fun with them. And even though we were looking forward to going further, the team that beat us was well qualified,” and Rowe.

But Hopkinton’s chances for trivia glory have not been totally erased.

Several students, including some from Granite State Challenge, are currently competing in the WKXL (1450 AM) Tournament of Learning radio show trivia contest.

Several other area high schools are also participating in the competition including Bishop Brady, Concord, Trinity, Merrimack Valley and Pembroke.

The radio contest can be heard Saturday’s at 12:30 p.m.

Bow High School also participated in this year’s Granite State Challenge, but lost to Fall Mountain Regional High School in the first round.