The Bear Facts
November 3, 2007




Good morning! I'm Gina Rasmussen!

And I'm Melanie Meyers! Welcome once again to the "Bear Facts", the weekly radio show from Bishop Garrigan High School.


"Congratulations to your still undefeated Bishop Garrigan Golden Bears!" That's how P.A. announcer David Burrow has ended almost every home football game this season, and that's how he ended the playoff opener the Bears played last Wednesday against Newell-Fonda. The game was a rematch of last year's playoffs, when the Bears lost in the opening round. This year the game was all Garrigan, though. The Bears got on the board first, and they didn't look back. They ended up defeating the Newell-Fonda Mustangs by a score of 40 - 13 to keep their record unblemished and advance to the state quarterfinals.

Pretty much everybody came up big when it mattered for the Bears. Seniors like A.J. Doughan and D.J. Thompson had exciting plays, but so did sophomore quarterback Brett Capesius. Juniors like Joe Straub, Ethan Gisch, and Jack Bradley also came on strong in playoffs. The J.V. played through much of the second half, and they had one of their best showings of the season-especially on defense, and the special teams also did a great job.

The victory advances the Bears to the second round of playoffs, where they'll have a rematch with Britt West Hancock. Garrigan got their first-ever victory over West Hancock earlier this season, and they're the only team to beat Britt this year. We know it will be a good game, but we also know the Bears have what it takes to win. The state quarterfinals will be Monday night at 7:00 in Britt. Good luck to the Bears as they look to remain undefeated in the post-season!


Football playoffs have caused some problems for the Golden Bear quiz bowl team. The team includes football players like D.J. Thompson, Vince Cruise, Joe Straub, and Jake Lane, and both last weekend and today they've had to drop out of quiz bowl competitions so they could practice for the playoffs. The Bears did well last weekend, though, when they competed in the Ankeny Invitational Quiz Bowl Tournament. The team of Ethan Gisch, Mark Poeppe, Melissa Cruise, Brittany Berte, and Alex Hamilton ended up with a 4 - 1 record, with wins over Southeast Polk, Iowa City Regina, Chariton, and West Bend Mallard. Today Garrigan has four teams competing in a big quiz tournament at Algona High. Good luck, quiz bowl!


Tonight is your last opportunity to see the BGHS fall musical, Bye Bye Birdie. The drama and music departments have been working extremely hard to prepare for the event, and pretty much everyone who has seen it agrees it's a really enjoyable show. The play is entertaining, and the music and choreography are first-rate. Curtain time is 7:30 tonight, and tickets are just $6 for adults and $4 for students.


You can always find out what's going on at Garrigan by checking out the BGHS website. Garrigan was one of the first schools in America to go online-thirteen years ago-and its website has grown into one of the most comprehensive school websites anywhere. The site is created by and for students. This fall Lee Brashear, Amber Broesder, and Allison Missal work hard each day to keep the hundreds of pages and tens of thousands of pictures up to date. You can check out Garrigan online by going to garrigan - dot - unlimitedweb - dot - net.


Our Senior Spotlight this week shines two of oursenior football players: David Frideres and Mike Garman. Here to tell you about them is Jake Lane.

Dave Frideres is a three-year football letterwinner who is a captain and one of the top defensive players on this year's team. He also keeps busy with basketball and track, and he's a three-year member of the student council. Dave is active in Christian Leadership in Action, and after high school he hopes to major in athletic training at UNI.

Mike Garman is an Algona native who plays center for the Golden Bear football team. His intramural basketball team won the school championship last year and is lookingfor a repeat in 2008. When he's not at school, you might see Mike working at Northwest Federal. He wants to major in business in college, and he's also looking at attending UNI next year. Good luck to both Dave and Mike!


Thanks, Jake! On our Golden Bear calendar this week, there's quiz bowl today at Algona High. Then tonight at 7:30 there's the final performance of Bye, Bye Birdie.

Tomorrow Daylight Savings Time ends. St. Cecelia's will have their parish dinner in the afternoon. Monday we'll have a Black and Gold Day at BGHS as we prepare for the big state quarterfinal football game Monday night.

Because of football playoffs, parent-teacher conferences have been postponed to Tuesday. Garrigan's conferences will be in the teachers' classrooms at the high school from 3:30 - 6:30pm. Also on Tuesday, several juniors and seniors will travel to Mall of America.

Freshmen and sophomores who met their calendar sales goals will go to Mall of America on Wednesday. Conferences continue Wednesday afternoon, and this time high school conferences are at the Rochleau Center at Seton.

Wednesday is also state volleyball, and we wish good luck in the tournament to our friends at Algona High. Because of AHS volleyball both Algona and Garrigan will dismiss early Wednesday and start late on Thursday.

There's no school at either Algona or Garrigan next Friday. We're hoping Garrigan will be playing in the state football semifinals, which will be at the UNI-Dome at 10:30 Friday morning.


That's the "Bear Facts" for this week. Thanks for listening, and be sure to join us next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.


Return to ...

"Bear Facts" Home Page


bggoldenbears.org


bishopgarrigan.org