The 48th season of As Schools Match Wits comes to a close this Saturday evening, June 20, when returning champion Longmeadow High School goes up against Westfield High School. The championship airs at 7 p.m. on WGBY TV7.
This season 200 students from 50 high schools in Massachusetts and Northern Connecticut competed. Just two teams remain to vie for the championship. The show is co-produced by Westfield State College and WGBY.
The final episode of the season comes just as the program has received its second and third industry awards of the year. These are the 2009 Award of Distinction in Educational Programming awarded by The Communicator Awards and a bronze Telly Award for cable television programming.
Early this spring, the program was honored with a Platinum Aurora Award in educational film and video. Both the Communicator and Aurora Awards are juried competitions judged by of working film and video professionals.
Tony Dunne, producer of As Schools Match Wits, said, “The Award of Distinction is a great honor, and we are grateful for the acknowledgements we're receiving from the industry. The 48th season of ASMW has been our best yet - and hopefully the best is still yet to come.”
For Elizabeth Preston, executive producer of the program and dean of faculty at Westfield State College, the awards are a testament to the hard work of students at the college, who make up the show’s production crew. “The progress we have made this season is a result of their creativity and commitment to continually improving the experience we provide for the contestants and the viewers,” she said.
“The college is very proud of As Schools Match Wits for many reasons,” said Evan S. Dobelle, president of Westfield State. “The award-winning show speaks well for the quality of our Communication Department. We are also proud of the joint initiative between the college, WGBY and WWLP.”
Created by Westfield State alumnus Leonard Collamore, As Schools Match Wits (ASMW) is an academic competition featuring some of the region’s top high school students. First broadcast in the fall of 1961, the program is the longest running high school quiz show in the country.
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