Hills East Advances to Round 2 in "The Challenge"

Following their first-round victory, the academic team from HHH HS East is moving on to Round 2 of "The Challenge," an academic quiz show designed to test students’ knowledge in a "Jeopardy"-style format.  

The second round match-up between all-star student scholars from Hills East and West Islip HS will air next Monday, March 14, at 5:30 p.m. on MSG Varsity.  

Representing Half Hollow Hills East High School will be Daniel Friedman, Mark Lobo, Harshil Mattoo, Aaron Schwartz (team captain) and Isaac Vingan. The academic advisor is Patrick Breig.

Adam, Harshil, Isaac and Mark are all juniors and Daniel is a senior, Breig said. Mark was the alternate this time around but he competed in the first round.

Breig has been the advisor for the academic team for five years now and teaches English at Hills East. Breig said that a student from any grade can be in the club, although the upperclassmen end up being the most involved. They hold tryouts at the beginning of the school year to make "The Challenge," and this year, more boys tried out than girls. About 20 students are in the club, Breig said, half girls and half boys. 

They do other challenges throughout the year as well--the regional quiz bowl and other tournaments, Breig explained. They need to know a lot of trivia for "The Challenge," which covers all school subjects. 

"We meet every Friday to practice," Breig said, "And we have tournaments about once a month."

"I'm definitely proud of them," he added. "They prepared well and did a nice job. It's hard. For some tournaments, sometimes they have to know a category that one student in the tournament will know very well, or maybe all of them will know it. But it was very exciting and fun to go on TV and see how a TV show is filmed. We had a good time."

Jared Cotter, former FUSE TV host and a popular semi-finalist from "American Idol," serves as moderator of "The Challenge," quizzing competing high school teams on their knowledge of history, arts and literature, current events, math, and science.  This season the students compete before a live audience.

“These students are extremely bright and determined to win,” said Theresa Chillianis, general manager, MSG Varsity.  “We wish Half Hollow Hills East High School and West Islip High School good luck in their upcoming match.”