MANALAPAN HIGH SCHOOL TO FACE HACKENSACK HIGH SCHOOL IN FIRST ROUND OF 2012-13 MSG VARSITY’S “THE CHALLENGE”

192 High Schools to Compete for the Title of Tri-State Champion

The new season of MSG Varsity’s award winning high school quiz show, “The Challenge”, will feature a first round match-up between Manalapan High School and Hackensack High School on Friday, December 21, 2012 at 6:30 p.m. on Cablevision’s Optimum, Channel 14.

Manalapan will compete against 47 other schools from New Jersey during the Regional Rounds as they look to qualify for the Tri-State Championship Playoffs.

Back for his fourth season as host of “The Challenge” is Jared Cotter, host of “MSG Varsity’s Talent Show” and a popular semi-finalist from American Idol.  Cotter will serve as moderator, testing competing teams on their knowledge of history, arts and literature, current events, math, and science in front of a live studio audience.

The Manalapan team is represented by: James Zhang, Christina Floristean, Paolo Costa (Captain), Jay Kasakove and (Alternate) Alex Wang. The academic advisors are Jessy Friedman and Victoria Mckeon.

“The Challenge” includes 192 high schools from the entire tri-state area — Long Island (with Nassau and Suffolk as two distinct regions), the Bronx, Brooklyn, Westchester/Lower Hudson Valley, New Jersey and Connecticut.  Long Island will be represented by 32 high schools from Nassau County and 32 high schools from Suffolk County. A new match-up can been seen every Sunday through Friday at 6:30 pm, on MSG Varsity, Cablevision’s Optimum Channel 14. 

Participating schools advance through a series of elimination rounds, with one school in each region being crowned regional champion and winning $2,500 for their school. The winning teams from each region go on to “The Challenge” Championship where they square off in a Tri-State Showdown. The school awarded the title of Tri-State Champion will receive $10,000 in prize money and each student participating in the final “Challenge” Championship game will receive $500.

For more information on “The Challenge,” please log onto www.msgvarsity.com.