Agawam ‘Wits’ excited, nervous for quiz show appearance

May 5, 2022 | Peter Currier
pcurrier@thereminder.com

Agawam High School competitors in this year’s “As Schools Match Wits” appearance were, from left, Christopher Robinelli, Eden Berry and Huda Sarhan.
Reminder Publishing photo by Peter Currier

WESTFIELD — Students from Gateway Regional High School and Agawam High School had a close battle of the brains in an “As Schools Match Wits” episode that will air May 7.

Huda Sarhan, Chris Rodinelli, and Eden Barry represented Agawam, against Garrett LaBranche, Leah Santiago and Aiden Maan for Gateway, a high school in Huntington that covers six rural towns west of Westfield.

In what may be a first for the long-running high school quiz show, at least since the show began filming at Westfield State University, one of the contestants was visually impaired, and was given special accommodations to compete with his team. During the March 19 taping, Maan was given a set of braille punch cards that contained the multiple-choice options for the capitalization round, so that he could read over the options as the questions were being asked. If Gateway correctly answered a qualifier question that resulted in a series of multiple-choice questions, the production was briefly paused, Maan was given the punch card for the question to go over quickly, and production resumed.

“I’m excited. I was an alternate last time and this time I actually get to participate, and I am very much looking forward to doing that,” said Maan.

Even for the other contestants, the program has not entirely returned to its “normal” format. Both teams gathered behind their respective desks at Westfield State’s TV studio, but in a COVID-19 social distancing measure, host Beth Ward ran the show from a separate room.

The six total contestants had a mix of experience on the show, with some making their first appearance behind the desks. Agawam juniors Rodinelli and Sarhan competed for the first time, both describing feeling excited and nervous about their first TV appearance before the match took place. Their teammate, Berry, was a contestant last year in the 60th season.

Part of Agawam’s preparation process was watching episodes from previous years. Sarhan is a “Jeopardy!” fan, which is what got her into the local quiz show in the first place.

“It is just a lot of extra trivia, and it is just pretty fun to watch,” said Sarhan.
Rondinelli specialized in history and sports-related questions, and Sarhan said her strongest subjects for the show were science and math.

Like Agawam, Gateway’s team consists of just one contestant returning from last year, Santiago. LaBranche and Maan shared a similar feeling of excitement and nerves as their first-time opponents. LaBranche said before the match that he is the team’s pop-culture expert. Maan said he is the historical and political question expert, and Santiago said she handles basically everything else.

The Agawam-Gateway match will be shown at 7 p.m. on May 7 on New England Public Media’s WGBY television, Channel 57.

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