The Bear Facts
March 2, 2024

Good morning! I’m Violet Bode!

I’m Brendan Plathe!

And I’m Benjy Trainer! Thanks for joining us for the “Bear Facts”, where each week we bring you the news from Bishop Garrigan High School.

There are 114 teams in Class 1-A girls basketball. Of those, only eight teams make it to state. In 2024 the Golden Bear girls made their tenth trip down to Des Moines, and their fifth consecutive trip to state in a string going back to the year 2020. The Bears faced Council Bluffs St. Albert on Wednesday afternoon in Wells-Fargo Arena. The Bears played tough defense and held the Saintes to ten points below their season average.

While Garrigan played the closest 1-A game of the day, unfortunately they struggled on offense against two St. Albert players who were over six feel tall. The Bears ended up losing 53 – 42. Junior Zoe Montag was the Bears’ top scorer at state, with 12 points. Gracelyn Eastman had a double double, with 10 points and 13 rebounds. Abbie Capesius had 9 points and 10 rebounds. Sacha Alesch scored 8 points, and Emmi Bartolo got 3. Congratulations to all the Bears on finishing their season with another state tournament appearance!

The basketball players weren’t the only Garrigan team at Wells-Fargo this week. On Thursday the Golden Bear danz squad went down to Des Moines to show off their talent at halftime of the Class 4-A semifinal game. The girls performed their state championship pom routine. Congratulations to the dancers on being invited to show off their talent.

Last weekend Bishop Garrigan had a very successful day at the district individual speech contest over at Sioux Central High School. We brought home nine Division I (or “excellent”) ratings, while three entries were judged “good” with Division II ratings. Violet Bode earned two Division I’s—one for reading a politically correct version of “Rapunzel” in prose, and the other for musical theatre, where she acted out the song “What’s Wrong with Me” from Singin’ in the Rain.

Brooke Ludwig also received two Division I’s. One was for an expository address on infant CPR, and the other was for spontaneous speaking, where she looked at the problems that extending the school day would bring. Sam Plathe also got a “I” in spontaneous speaking for a speech on bullying. Benjy Trainer was judged “excellent” for his improvisation on a dance class for people who can’t dance.

Molly Peterson earned a “I” in reviewing, where she explored what was good and bad about an oboe composition by Bach called “Sinfonia”. In the prose Brendan Plathe got top marks for reading “The Man who Invented the Calendar” and Ava Hough was judged excellent for reading “Chatty Cathy with a Kiss”.

Division II marks went to Benjy Trainer and Tate Foertsch in radio and to Shiloh Trainer in literary program.Students who earned I’s now advance to the state speech contest. That will be held one week from today, March 9, at Kuemper High School in Carroll. Congratulations to all the speech students and to their coach David Burrow.

Three Garrigan students will be very busy this weekend. They’re down in Marshalltown, where they’re competing at the state YMCA swim meet as part of the Algona Wahoos. Freshmen Matt Besch and Dalton Klenz will be competing in the boys’ meet today, and junior Brooke Ludwig will be competing in the girls’ division tomorrow. Brooke qualified for state in ten events, and she’ll be swimming five: the medley relay, the 50, 100, and 200-meter backstrokes, and the 400-meter freestyle relay.

Dalton’s state events are the medley relay and the 200-meter freestyle relay. Matt Besch qualified for state in fourteen different events, and he’ll be competing in five. He’ll swim the medley relay and the 200-meter freestyle relay, as well as the 100-meter breaststroke, the 100-meter freestyle, and the 200-meter butterfly. Younger student Ali Elbert will also be heading to state. Congratulations to all the swimmers on qualifying. Good luck at state!

Two weeks from now the Garrigan spring play will take the stage. The play features a family who goes on vacation and accidentally cross into communist territory. Lead roles are played by Sam Plathe, Violet Bode, Benjy Trainer, and Elena Salinas. Tickets are $7 for floor seats and $5 for bleachers, and showtime is 7pm Friday and Saturday, March 15 and 16. Be sure to see Don’t Drink the Water on the Garrigan stage.

Last week Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate visited with the Garrigan senior class yesterday to present the Carrie Chapman Catt Award. BGHS earned this award by having at least 90% of eligible students registered to vote. Social Studies teacher Brian Patterson has worked with students to help Garrigan win this year for four straight years.

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Kyra Deike. Here to tell you about her is Abbie Capesius.

Kyra Deike was one of the dancers who performed at the state tournament this past week. She’ll also be busy next weekend, when she serves on the stage crew for the spring play. Kyra has also been in volleyball all through school, and in the past she was on the softball team. Next year she plans to go to the University of South Dakota, and in the future she’d like a career as a chiropractor. Good luck, Kyra!

Thanks, Abbie! On our Golden Bear calendar this week, there’s state YMCA swimming in Marshalltown. The boys’ meet is today, and the girls compete tomorrow.

After a very busy week with state basketball, this coming week is comparatively light. We’ll have a student mass Tuesday morning, and Wednesday several ag students will be going to Iowa Lakes for Ag Day.

Thursday we’ll have the annual academic banquet, where we’ll honor the top students in all four classes. Finally next Saturday is the state individual speech contest at Carroll Kuemper.

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