The Bear Facts
January 9, 2016

Good morning! I’m Devin Degen!

 I’m James Quinlin!

And I’m Kylie Fox! Happy New Year from the “Bear Facts”, where it’s 2016 here at Bishop Garrigan High School.

It’s trivia time again. The Golden Bear quiz bowl team is hoping to make another good showing as they compete today at Algona High. Garrigan has three teams in the tournament today. Devin Degen, Noah Buscher, Joseph Espinosa, and Ben Degen make up the “black” varsity team; while Andrew Thilges, Sam Harrington, Logan Capesius, and Sam Trainer are team “gold”. There’s also a JV team with Logan Heying, Gabe Trainer, Ashlyn Harrigton, and Aidan Koob. Good luck to Coach David Burrow and the quiz bowl team!

Next Wednesday sixteen Garrigan students will be heading over to Storm Lake for the annual Diocese of Sioux City honor band. Band director Ken Ferjak selected the participants based on their outstanding musicianship. This year’s honorees include seniors Mariah Bronk, Johanna Vaske, and Logan Besch; and juniors Andrew Meister, Rebecca Bonstetter, and Sam Harrington.

Younger participants include Isabelle Davis, Ellayah DeLange, Eric Thul, Courtney Kirsch, Caitlyn Thilges, Emma Thul, and Megan Bronk; as well as Will Fox, Trevor Darling, Ashlyn Harrington, and Drew Hansen. Congratulations to all the diocesan band honorees!

The first semester is almost over. That means the school year is halfway over—more than half for those of us who are seniors. Semester tests will be coming up next week. Each day we’ll have three different hour-long test periods, with a long break between the tests. We’ll have open campus during those periods when we don’t have tests.

The test days are also out of uniform days at the high school, thanks to the chicken fundraiser project we had before Christmas. We chipped in money to buy live chickens that will allow people in Haiti to start flocks to feed their families. As a reward for helping out the needy, we get to dress down during semester tests.

Back before the holidays we had the annual induction ceremony for the National Honor Society. The induction got lost amid other news, though, and we never did recognize the honorees here on the “Bear Facts”. This year’s NHS inductees include two seniors: Mariah Bronk and Kelsey Hovey. They join second-year senior members Johanna Vaske, Carolyn Baxter, Devin Degen, Maddie Sullivan, James Quinlin, Kylie Fox, Olivia Vaske, and Landen Studer.

Thirteen juniors were also inducted into the National Honor Society this fall. They include Donovan Berte, Andrew Thilges, Sarah Skilling, Miranda Book, Sam Bormann, Danielle Plathe, Courtney Kirsch, Megan Brown, Grant Buscherfeld, Ryan Kenyon, Sam Harrington, Levi Capesius, and Logan Capesius. Congratulations to all these students and to NHS sponsor Twila Wichtendahl.

With basketball season in full swing, the winter spirit squad has been busy at Garrigan. This year’s basketball cheerleaders include Isabelle Davis, Gigi Byrkeland, Ashlyn Harrington, Emma Thul, Caroline Bradley, Lauren Kenyon, Layah DeLange, and Olivia Hart. Thanks to the cheerleaders for all the hard work they do!


For the past twenty-five years, each year during Christmas break Garrigan has honored former students as part of our Athletic Hall of Fame. Last weekend when the Bears faced Algona High nine members of the BGHS Class of 2015 were honored for their outstanding success in a wide range of sports. Congratulations to former Golden Bears Emily Marlow, Betty Straub, Kaitlyn Fogarty, Reece Wadle, Andrew Miller, Ben Vaske, Tony Kollasch, Zach Kollasch, and Tyler Schnurr.

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Michael Condoleon. Here to tell you about her is Carolyn Baxter.

You’ve probably heard Michael Condoleon announcing here on the “Bear Facts”. He’s also a guard who is one of the top boys basketball players on the Golden Bear team. Michael also enjoys golf, and his other activities have included football and baseball. Michael has taken courses like Calculus, so he should be set when he goes off to college next year. We wish him all the best in the future.

Thanks, Carolyn. On our Golden Bear calendar this week, the quiz bowl team is at Algona High this morning, and there’s also wrestling today at Forest City. Then on Monday the JJV basketball team plays at Humboldt.

Tuesday the basketball teams host Belmond—Klemme, and our wrestlers are at home at Algona High. Semester tests begin on Wednesday, and there’s also the diocesan honor band in Storm Lake that day.

Thursday there’s basketball, with the Bears at West Bend—Mallard. Friday we’ll finish up semester tests, and finally next Saturday the math team plays at Iowa Falls.

That’s our first “Bear Facts” of 2016. Thanks for tuning in, and be sure to join us again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.