Trivia Team Takes Second Swing at 'High School Quiz Show' Saturday

The Somerville High School trivia team is taking a second shot at glory Saturday when it competes on WGBH's televised High School Quiz Show.

It's the second year in a row the trivia team has made it onto the show, which features the 16 best public high school quiz teams in the state.

Last year, Somerville was knocked out during the first round of competition by Rockport. This year the team faces Lincoln-Sudbury in the first round, and Theodore Blake, the team's advisor, thinks Somerville has a good chance of moving forward in this year's competition.

The team competes on a monthly basis in the North Shore College Bowl trivia league, where Somerville is constantly the number two team in the competition, behind its old nemesis, Rockport. (Somerville is somewhat of an outlier in that trivia league because it's not really from the North Shore, Blake said.)

The team also competes in the Knowledge Master Open, which includes teams from around the world, and World Boston.

What's more, three of the team's members—senior Zoe Iacovino and juniors Miles Bain and Celine Lessard-Brandt—are returning from last year's High School Quiz Show campaign. The fourth member of the team competing Saturday is sophomore John Iacovino, Zoe's brother. Graham Lessard-Brandt, a sophomore, and R.J. Bingham, a junior, are alternates.

By all measures, Somerville should be stronger than it was last year. That said, "You don't know what to expect," Blake said.

Saturday's competition against Lincoln-Sudbury will be filmed at 2:45 p.m., but the episode won't air until March 3.

Members of the public are invited to attend the taping to support the team. To do so they should sign up here: highschoolquizshow.org.

"There's going to be a crowd," Blake said, adding it would be best for the team if the crowd leaned Somerville.