The Bear Facts
February 27, 2016

Good morning! I’m Zac Kibby!

I’m Devin Degen!

And I’m James Quinlin! Thanks for turning in to the “Bear Facts”, the radio show where we keep you up to date on all the news here at Bishop Garrigan High School.

We had a sad announcement at school last Monday. We learned we’d lost a coach, a leader, a mentor, and a friend here at Garrigan. Gene Meister, who had been battling cancer for six and a half years, died from complications of multiple myeloma. Mr. Meister served Bishop Garrigan since the 1980s as business manager, curriculum director, and principal; and he was the first lay person to serve as president of the school system. For his longtime service he was honored by the Diocese of Sioux City with the “Called to Service” Award.

While he also coached basketball for a couple years, Mr. Meister is probably best known as a baseball coach, and his success on the diamond was legendary. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Iowa Baseball Coaches Association. He was responsible for more than 975 career wins, which ranked him sixth all time among high school coaches in Iowa and in the top twenty all-time nationwide. He took eleven teams—including two from Garrigan—to the state baseball tournament, and he led the Golden Bears to countless conference and district championships. 

Several of Mr. Meister’s former players went on to play college and even professional ball. Athlete or not, though, he had an impact on everyone at Garrigan. He was an outstanding role model throughout his career, and that continued even in the courageous way he faced cancer. We’ll all miss Mr. Meister, and we want his whole family to know they’ll continue to be in our thoughts and prayers.

Last week the Golden Bear boys basketball team wrapped up their season with one of the most exciting games of the season—a back-and-forth game with Newell—Fonda that ended up with a narrow loss in overtime. This wasn’t an outstanding season for the Bears, but they had a respectable showing, ending up in the middle of the pack in the Top of Iowa Conference.

The Bears will be losing veteran seniors Zac Kibby, Michael Condoleon, Zach Boelter, Logan Rosenmeyer, Landen Studer, and Cameron Langerman. They’ve got a lot to build on for the future, though—including freshmen T.J. Schnurr and Brad Capesius who should be starting for the next three years. Congratulations to Coach Harry Condoleon and the boys basketball team!

The Golden Bear speech team is over in Milford today for the district individual speech contest. Garrigan has hosted this contest for the past thirty years, but this year it’s moved to Okoboji. At contest today Caitlin Thilges will perform “The Waltz”, Tommy Kollasch will read “Detention”, Chloe Garman will act out the selection “Born a Girl”, Noah Buscher will read about “The Awe and Wonder of the Universe”, and Gabe Trainer will present “Ah, Bacon”.

Two Garrigan students will each present two selections at district contest. Sam Trainer will present a comedy selection about “Baseball vs. Football” and tell the story of “Clever Gretl”; while Levi Capesius will present “Put on a Happy Face” in Musical Theatre and act out the selection “How to Be the Popular Guy”. Best wishes to all the speech selections and to directors Mary McCall and David Burrow.

Tomorrow at 4:00 the Golden Bear danz squad will present their annual winter show. This year’s show is called “Pure Imagination”. The team will present their state champion kick and pom routines, as well as their coed and friends routines. Courtney Noonan, Sarah Skilling, Kassidy Schiltz, and Hailey Kollasch will present their award-winning solo dances, and there will also be guest performances from other area schools and from local dance studios. Good luck to Coach Colleen Conway—Schiltz and all the dancers!

Next Friday is the annual BGHS pops concert. Table seats are available for $7 each, and bleacher seating is $5. You can contact Mary McCall or the main office at Garrigan to make reservations for table seats. Showtime is 7pm next Friday, March 4. Be sure to be on hand for the pops concert!

Also mark your calendar for March 11, when the Golden Bear quiz bowl team will hold their sixth annual community quiz bowl. Quiz bowl team members have been busy writing questions and organizing the competition. The community quiz bowl raises money to help pay for the team’s trip to nationals, which this summer will be in Chicago. All ages are welcome to participate. For more information or to register a team, call quiz bowl captain Devin Degen at 515-200-9347.

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Alex McGuire. Here to tell you about him is “Lally” (Andrew Lallier).

Alex McGuire is known to his friends as “Ocho”. His biggest activity is baseball. He’s played the game since he was a little kid, and he’s also a big baseball fan. Alex enjoys science classes, and another of his activities was being part of the Envirothon team. He’s also helps keep the school website up to date. Alex already has some college credits under his belt, and we wish him good luck when he goes off to school in the future.

Thanks, Lally! On our Golden Bear calendar, there’s district speech today at Okoboji High School in Milford. Then tomorrow at 4:00 the danz squad will hold their winter show.

 Monday is Leap Year Day. Tuesday the danz squad will perform at the girls state basketball tournament, and also that day four Golden Bears will be visiting the state capitol for Education Legislation Day.

Next Wednesday the high school will have our weekly student mass at St. Michael’s in Whittemore. We’ll have a tornado drill on Thursday, and there’s also a college fair that day at Algona High.

Hailey Kollasch, Sarah Skilling, Chloe Garman, and Danielle Plathe will be gone Thursday and Friday to perform with the All-Iowa Honor Drill Team. We’ll have a jeans day for Gala on Friday, and that night is Pops Concert 2016.

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