THE BEAR FACTS
FEBRUARY 28, 2015

 Good morning! I’m Maddie Sullivan

 And I’m Joseph Espinosa! This is the “Bear Facts”. Thanks for joining us to hear all the news from Bishop Garrigan High School.

 This morning we’re hosting the district large-group speech contest at Garrigan. We’ve hosted district contest at BGHS every year for more than a quarter century, and every year contest manager Mary McCall gets good reviews on how smoothly the contest runs. This year there are 374 entries representing schools from throughout northwest Iowa.

 The Bears have thirteen entries at this year’s district contest. Within the next hour Hannah Bernhard will present the Expository Address “Ludicrous Laws”, Levi Capesius will present the Musical Theatre selection “I Am the Very Model of A Modern Major-General”, Emily Riesenberg will tell the story of “Gilbert, the Surfer Dude”, and Mariana Pacheco will give a speech on ballet. Later this morning Noah Buscher will present a Literary Program called “Creation”, while in Mjusical Theatre Dorothy Kirsch sings “I Cain’t Say No” and Mark Fakler sings “Bring Him Home”.

 Around lunch time there will be two Prose entries—Hannah Bernhard with “Street Directions” and Dorothy Kirsch with “Lamentations of a Teenager”. Morgan Frideres will tell the story “Good Driving, Amelia Bedelia”, and Mark Fakler will perform in Improvisation. Then in the afternoon Nick Kayser will present the Prose selection “Girls”, and Levi Capesius will act out a scene called “The Driving Instructor”. Best wishes to all the speech competitors, and also to Coaches Mary McCall and David Burrow!

The annual Bishop Garrigan pops concert is coming up. The show will be next Friday night, March 6. Reserved table seats are available by calling the school at 295-3521, but there’s always bleacher seating available at the door. The show will include performances by the full choir and band, as well as a wide variety of small groups and soloists. There will also be tributes to all the seniors in the music program.

 Among the special performances at pops concert is the show choir. This year’s show choir includes sopranos Morgan Frideres, Caitlin Thilges, Isabelle Davis, Danielle Plathe, Samantha Harrington, Carolyn Baxter, Betty Straub, Caroline Hamilton, and Taylor Frideres. The alto section features Dorothy Kirsch, Mariah Bronk, Johanna Vaske, Chloe Garman, Mariana Pacheco, and Gaby Steil.

 The tenors in show choir are Levi Capesius, Sam Trainer, Ben Fogarty, Skyland Meraz, Mark Fakler, Joshua Hamilton, and Andrew Meister. There’s also a big bass section—with Patrick Marlow, James Quinlin, Zach Kollasch, Taylor Illg, Tony Kollasch, Nick Kayser, Andrew Thilges, and Jedd Magill. Be sure to see the show choir and all the great acts at the pops concert next Friday, March 6.

The Golden Bear basketball teams ended their season this past week. The girls surpassed everyone’s expectations and ended up being one of the top teams in the North Iowa Conference. Seniors Emily Marlow and Betty Straub were at the core of this year’s team, but the girls will be returning top scorer Johanna Vaske and point guard Jenna Boelter next year. Congratulations on a great season to Coach Brandon Schwab and the Golden Bear girls!




The Golden Bear boys also had a great season. Their highlights include a big win over Algona High and a great playoff run that ended in tough loss at the buzzer to Newell—Fonda. The Bears had a great group of seniors this year: Tyler Schnurr, Reece Wadle, Ben Vaske, Jess Marlow, Andrew Miller, and Zach Kollasch. They’ll still be strong next year, though—with returning players like Michael Condoleon and Gibson Behr. Congratulations on a great season to Coach Harry Condoleon and the boys basketball team!

 Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Emily Riesenberg. Here to tell you about her is Danielle Plathe.

 Emily Riesenberg comes to Garrigan from the West Bend area. She was one of the top cross-country runners for the Bears and she also keeps busy with track, speech, drama, Christian Leadership in Action, and the “Bear Facts” radio show. Emily was one of the seniors who was installed as a Eucharistic minister earlier this month. She’ll be off to college next fall, and we wish her all the best in the future.

 Thanks, Danielle! On our Golden Bear calendar this week, there’s the district individual speech contest today at Garrigan. Then tomorrow intramural basketball continues.

 Tuesday Garrigan’s seniors will be heading to Des Moines for a Celebration of Education at the state house. Also that day a group of juniors will be helping out at the Caring and Sharing Hands Mission in Minneapolis.

 Wednesday the Garrigan danz squad will perform their state championship routine at the girls state basketball tournament. Then Thursday and Friday several of our girls will be part of the All-Iowa Honor Dance Team.

 We’ll have First Friday adoration at school next Friday. Then finally that night it’s the 2015 Pops Concert.
 That’s the “Bear Facts” for February. Thanks for tuning in, and be sure to catch the show again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.