Sharon High Draws Rematch In Quiz Show Opener

2012 state title pursuit will begin where last year's run ended.

will be Sharon's first-round opponent in the 16-team single-elimination tournament, show officials announced today. The program airs at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 19 on WGBH-2, and repeats at 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25.

Hamilton-Wenham defeated Sharon, 295-210, in the Eastern Mass. semi-finals last season. Hamilton-Wenham won the state title, defeating .

The 2012 season premiere is Feb. 12 and features Brookline against Seekonk.

The Sharon-Hamilton-Wenham winner and the Brookline-Seekonk winner will meet in an episode airing April 8.

Sharon's on-air team will be junior Frank Zhou and sophomores Peter Riley, Siddharth Singh and Clara Mao, adviser Valerie Gundlah said. The alternates are juniors Pittayut Phonboon and Hari Anbarasu.

Zhou and Singh were on the four-person academic team, and Phonboon and Anbarasu were the alternates, that Sharon sent to the show for the first time last season. Sharon's team also included then-senior Nishanth Iyengar and current junior Matt Corman.

Each game features four rounds: toss-up, where each correct answer earns 10 points, but teams aren't penalized for incorrect answers; head-to-head, pitting one player from each team against each other for 90 seconds, with each correct and incorrect answer worth 10 points; categories, featuring six categories of five questions of increasing value; and the 90-second lightning round, with each correct and incorrect answer worth 20 points.

This season's 16 schools scored the highest among 78 schools taking a 100-question oral quiz at WGBH's Brighton studios on Oct. 30.

The Emmy-Award winning fast-paced academic game show is hosted by Billy Costa.