Youngstown man wants to be a millionaire, but will he do it? Stay tuned
Sean Sich
The high school debate team coach will watch the show with his students.
Sean Sich and his wife, Beth, were having breakfast at their hotel in Hawaii last August when Sean offered a rhetorical observation.
“I can’t imagine this vacation getting any better,” he said.
Well, it did.
After breakfast, Sich and his wife went up to their room, where he had left his cell phone to charge. There was one new message: a representative from “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” telling him he had been selected to be a contestant.
Sich, of Youngstown, will compete on the popular quiz show Thursday and Friday. The show airs at 4 p.m. on WKBN-TV 27.
The 28-year-old Sich is a software tester for Notify Technology in Canfield, and is also a debate team coach at Poland Seminary High School.
The 1998 graduate of Austintown Fitch High is married to the former Beth Hudach of Boardman. He is a graduate of Youngstown State University.
Sich has always toyed with the notion of trying out for a game show.
“My wife says I have a great memory for trivia,” he said. “I can’t tell you what I had for breakfast, but I will remember random things that were said on ‘Seinfeld’. I pick up info on strange things that have nothing to do with anything, but I will often miss the big picture.”
Sich’s quest for “Millionaire” began in 2006. On June 30 of that year — two days before his wedding — he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease. He began chemotherapy treatments and was not able to work very much.
“I was looking for ways to make money and I said ‘I can always go on a game show.’ I saw on the Internet that ‘Millionaire’ was holding tryouts in Pittsburgh, so I went,” said Sich.
At the tryout, he took a test and was interviewed by a producer. He was told he would be put in the pool of contestants.
That was in the summer of 2006. Sich waited for a call, eagerly at first but with fading hope as the months passed.
In the summer of 2008, with his Hodgkin’s in remission, Sich and his wife took the trip to Hawaii. It was the honeymoon they were unable to take after their wedding.
Sich, his wife and his parents, Edward and Edna Sich of Austintown, drove to New York City in September to tape the show.
As part of his contract, Sich agreed to stay mum on how he did to avoid a financial penalty. He couldn’t tell a soul — even though his debate students at Poland kept up the pressure.
“It is going to be a relief to finally be able to talk about it,” he said. “After a while, it gets to you. It’s an expensive secret!”
Sich, his family, and the Poland debate team will gather at the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant Thursday to watch the show.
He said he will use some of his “Millionaire” winnings to pay off bills that weren’t covered by insurance and repay his parents, who helped him financially while he underwent chemotherapy. He also plans to donate to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Sich said his Hodgkin’s is in check. “The cure rate for Hodgkin’s when it’s caught in stage 2, which is where I was, is 90 percent,” he said. “I have been cancer-free for two and a half years now.”