Bedford To Face Nashua South In Granite State Challenge Quarterfinal Thursday

DURHAM, NH — Bedford High School’s Bulldogs will face Nashua High South in the first quarterfinal game of Granite State Challenge at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 9 on New Hampshire PBS.

The televised academic competition features a matchup between two teams with past history in the show.

Bedford is led by captain Matthew Ruggiero, a 10th-grader, and includes 11th-grader Tabitha Arp, 10th-grader Sumedh Godavarthy, and 9th-grader Sam Dooley. Alternate Samantha Arp, an 11th-grader, also supports the team. The Bulldogs are coached by Kelly Chausovsky, Bedford High’s Destination Imagination coordinator, and parent coach Sherry Arp.

According to the announcement, Bedford High School enrolls close to 1,500 students. The school reached the Granite State Challenge championship game in 2017, where it lost to Nashua South. This year’s quarterfinal brings the two schools together again.

With two teammates unavailable, Ruggiero said he still believes Bedford can compete well.

“ I think we'll be able to put forth a strong team,” he said. “We’ll just try to focus on making sure people don't feel the tension of the increase of moving up the bracket.”

Chausovsky said the team has been eager for the next round.

“They’ve had fun practicing some more and they’re excited to see what happens,” Chausovsky said.

Nashua South is captained by 12th-grader Henry Long and includes fellow 12th-graders Eric Picanco and Thanasi Miris, along with 10th-grader Charlie Long. Alternate Jerry Primo is also a 12th-grader. The team is coached by social studies teacher Lex Duval and English teacher Kelli Thornhill-Telerski. The Purple Panthers won Granite State Challenge championships in 2016 and 2017.

Long said his team used Bedford’s earlier appearance to prepare for the matchup.

“We know kind of how Bedford works because we got to see them play,” he said. “We looked at that and evaluated what we needed to work on to counter them.”

Thornhill-Telerski said team chemistry may help Nashua South.

“They sit together at lunch, they are constantly hanging out with each other and they're involved in a lot of other things together,” she said. “I think the camaraderie with our team is incredibly strong and that has been really fun for us to watch too.”

Granite State Challenge is hosted by Jon Cannon, a Bow High School teacher and former coach, contestant, and crew member connected to the program. The show tests students in math, science, social studies, language arts, fine arts, current events, entertainment, sports, and New Hampshire topics.

The quarterfinal will air on NHPBS and can also be streamed on the PBS App, the NHPBS YouTube channel and at nhpbs.org/gsc.