THE BEAR FACTS
December 2, 2023


Good morning! I’m Thadd Kiollasch!

I’m Tate Foertsch!

And I’m Daniel Meis! Welcome once again to the “Bear Facts”. Happy December from everyone at Bishop Garrigan High School.

We’ve talked about the Golden Bear football team almost every week for the past three months, but there’s one more thing to report about the state champion Golden Bears. Once the state tournament was wrapped up, all-district, all-area, and all-state honors were announced. Literally all the Bears’ starters earned all-district and all-area nods, and Coach Marty Wadle was District 2 Coach of the Year.

Garrigan also had seven players on the all-state list. Running back Caden Roethler was named captain of the eight-man all-state team. Other first team honorees were linesman Keaton Helleseth, punter Drew Lappe, and defensive back Ethan Marso. Earning second team all-state honors were receiver Justin Bauer, nose guard Brody Ludwig, and linebacker Benjy Trainer.





There were two names conspicuously absent from the all-state list. Quarterback Tate Foertsch has led the Bears all season long, and the athletic association named him player of the game in the state championship. Center Logan Nemmers won the Iowa Pork Producers hog award as the top lineman at state, and he’ll be playing football in college next year. While we think Tate and Logan were overlooked in the all-state honors, it’s much more important that they—and all the Bears—are state champions.

Winter sports have gotten off to a great start at Bishop Garrigan. A lot of people in other schools felt this would be a rebuilding year for the Golden Bear girls basketball team, but the girls have started out the new season with two dominating wins. Senior Abbie Capesius returns a lot of experience from playing in back-to-back state championships, and sophomore Sacha Alesch has been draining threes to be the Bears top scorer so far this year.

The varsity girls team also includes seniors Reagan Murphy and Alaina Casey; junior Zoe Montag; sophomores Emmi Bartolo, Reece Kemna, Alyssa Haugland, Ava Roethler, Carly Nielson, and Haley Nemmers; and freshman Gracelyn Eastman. Good luck to Coach Schwab and the Bears!

The Golden Bear boys began their season with a big win over Belmond—Klemme last Tuesday. Starters in that game included freshman Mike Joyce, sophomores Amaury Thomas and Carter Schwab, junior Trayton Cink, and senior Justin Bauer. Backing them up are seniors Logan Nemmers and Ben Greteman; juniors Drew Muller, Nick Leerar, and Daniel Meis; and sophomore Tate Foertsch. Good luck to Coach Meister and the Golden Bear boys!

Again this year five Golden Bears will be wrestling for the Algona Bulldogs. They started practice late, because all of them were busy using their strength and conditioning at state football. The Garrigan wrestlers include Brody Ludwig, Caden Roethler, Wyatt Rosenmeyer, Ethan Marso, and Carter McGregor. Good luck, wrestlers!

The state dance finals were held this past week at Wells—Fargo Arena in Des Moines. Senior Ella Schaaf competed in the Class 1 solo division, and she ended up taking second place statewide out of seventy-five dancers. Kyra Deike, Violet Bode, Kylie Capesius, Stormi Larsen, Harper Nelson, and Shiloh Trainer joined Ellas to compete in Class 1 pom as a team. They ended up bringing home another state championship. Congratulations, dancers!

The casts have been announced for this year’s large group speech team. The largest group is in Readers Theatre, which will include Thadd Kollasch, Brendan Plathe, Violet bode, Ava Hough, Zach Warren, and Scott Bormann; plus Hailee Reutzel, Molly Peterson, Izzy Waechter, Ava Roethler, Sacha Alesch, and Aubrey Meyer.

Thadd Kollasch and Tate Foertsch will be entered in Radio News Announcing. Benjy Trainer, Sam Plathe, and Izzy Waechter are in Musical Theatre. The Bears’ final entry is in Group Improvisation, and it will feature Violet Bode, Benjy Trainer, Brendan Plathe, and Sam Plathe. Best wishes to Coach David Burrow and everyone in large-group speech.

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Klayton Kramer. Here to tell you about him is Drew Muller.

Klayton Kramer is an easy-going guy who likes to have fun in and out of school. He’s in the Specialized Technology Topics class that takes pictures and builds web pages for the student website bggoldenbears.org. When he’s not at school, you may see Klayton working in landscaping. He’ll be doing that fulltime after he graduates early at semester. We wish Klayton the best of luck in the future.

Thanks, Drew. On our Golden Bear calendar there’s quiz bowl today at Spirit Lake, and this afternoon the basketball teams will be playing a quad at Hull Western Christian. Then tomorrow is the first Sunday of Advent.

The freshmen have a confirmation retreat tomorrow. We’ll begin the day Monday with an Advent prayer service, and then Monday night there’s JJV basketball with the Bears playing at Lake Mills.

The JV and varsity Bears will host Lake Mills on Tuesday. Wednesday there’s no school because of a teacher inservice, and that night we’ll have the Christmas vocal concert.

Thursday there’s a basketball quad at Newell—Fonda, and there’s also a home wrestling meet at Algona High. Then on Friday we’ll have mass for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. The basketball teams travel to Eagle Grove on Friday, and there’s JV wrestling that night.

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