Granite State Challenge Returns Feb. 7

In the wake of competitive play-off matches, Goffstown High School and Kennett High School emerged victorious to join the 2015 season of Granite State Challenge. Sixteen New Hampshire high school teams will compete in the 31st season of Granite State Challenge, New Hampshire Public Television’s high school quiz competition which premieres February 7th at 6 PM on NHPTV PRIME.

In November, 54 high schools competed at Plymouth State University for the chance to play in this season of Granite State Challenge. The bracket consists of the top-scoring 14 teams, and the winners of the play-off matches between Goffstown High School and Mascoma High School, and Kennett High School and Stevens High School. The final 16 teams competing this season are:

• Academy for Science and Design, Nashua
• Bishop Guertin High School, Nashua
• Bow High School, Bow
• Concord High School, Concord
• Dover High School, Dover
• Goffstown High School, Goffstown
• Hanover High School, Hanover
• Kennett High School, North Conway
• John Stark Regional High School, Weare
• Kingswood Regional High School, Wolfeboro
• Manchester Central High School, Manchester
• Merrimack High School, Merrimack
• Nashua High School South, Nashua
• Pinkerton Academy, Derry
• Portsmouth Christian Academy, Dover
• Plymouth Regional High School, Plymouth

It takes a winning combination of quick thinking, teamwork, and smarts as New Hampshire’s top high school academic teams play Granite State Challenge. The game emphasizes quick recall of math, science, social studies, language arts and fine arts facts - along with questions about current events, entertainment, sports, and New England. Host Jim Jeannotte poses the Challenge questions to the teams; co-host Lori Warriner gets the behind-the-scenes story from each team.

Look for exciting angles to games this season, including an online quiz where individuals can take the Challenge and play against each other in real time. Also, for a third year, there will be a Granite State vs. Bay State “Governor’s Cup” match between the winners of the Granite State Super Challenge and the WGBH Boston High School Quiz Show.

Granite State Challenge is generously funded by lead sponsor Unitil, a provider of natural gas and electricity to customers in New England; additional funding is provided by NEA New Hampshire, Heinemann, DF Richard, Markem-Imaje, Measured Progress, and the NHHEAF Network.

“Congratulations to the 16 teams that made it through the grueling qualifying rounds to win a prestigious place on Granite State Challenge this season,” said Carol Valianti, Unitil’s VP communications and public affairs. “Unitil is proud to support New Hampshire’s academic superstars and we can’t wait to follow the teams on their exciting journey to the SuperChallenge.”

The 31st season of Granite State Challenge premieres February 7th at 6 PM, with multiple airdates on NHPTV PRIME and NHPTV EXPLORE. All games can be watched online at video.nhptv.org, on YouTube or iTunes. Online GSC quizzes help keep students and audiences involved in the game. nhptv.org/gsc.

Submitted text and courtesy graphic.