The Bear Facts
October 4, 2025

Good morning! I’m Tate Foertsch!

I’m Alyssa Haugland!

And I’m Aubrey Meyer! Thanks for joining us for the “Bear Facts”, where this week we’re featuring our musicians and football players here at Bishop Garrigan High School.

Today is Algona Band Day. Garrigan has been part of the event for sixty-five years now, and we’ll be on hand for band day this year as well. Both the junior high and high school bands will be marching in the parade, which begins at 1:00 this afternoon. Then at 5:45 our Solid Gold Marching Band will be part of the field competition.

This year the band has prepared a field show called “Crazy”. There are four songs in the show—“Let’s Go Crazy”, “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, “Crazy in Love”, and “Crazy Train”. Director Katherine Wiemers organized the music and also choreographed the show, and the band has been busy all this fall getting ready for competition.

There are three seniors in this year’s Solid Gold Marching Band. Gabe Swift and Addison Kuper serve as drum majors, in addition to playing instruments, and Kayden Graves is a percussionist. About thirty other students are part of the band. After Band Day they’ll be part of the state marching competition, which will be next Saturday at 10am at Dodger Stadium in Ft. Dodge. Good luck, band!

This is also a busy time of year for the choir. Next Wednesday they’ll be heading down to St. Edmond High School in Ft. Dodge for the Sioux City Diocese Catholic Choral Festival. Choir members will be singing five different songs at the festival. They include “America, the Beautiful”, a gospel song called “Shout Glory”, two African songs called “Hlohonolofatsa” and “Baba Yetu”, and a song from Norse mythology about the wind called “Yotin”. The Catholic Choral Festival concert will be at 7pm Wednesday in the St. Ed’s auditorium in Ft. Dodge.

Some of the choral festival music overlaps with the songs students are preparing for all-state auditions later this month. In addition they’ll be singing songs like “I’m Glad”, “Dance of Zalongo”, “Nunc Dimitis”, and a song in Latin by the composer Haydn. Students auditioning for all-state this year include Amaury Thomas, Shiloh Trainer, Abigail Deardeuff, Riley Doerning, Lucy Eisenbarth, Rachel Kahle, and Anaya Thomas.

The Golden Bear football team continues to be ranked #1 in the 8-man class in almost every statewide poll. That includes the Iowa High School Athletic Association’s rankings, which are used for determining playoff seeds. As of the midseason mark last week quarterback Tate Foertsch had passed for 11 touchdowns and rushed for six, and runningback Ethan Marso had twelve rushing touchdowns. Ten different Golden Bears have scored so far this season.

Carter Schwab leads the Bears in tackles this season, with 16½—including 4 sacks and 7 tackles for a loss. Ethan Marso, Tate Foertsch, Dalton Klenz, and Karson Kramer also have double-digit tackles, and a total of 26 players have racked up varsity tackles this season. Tate Foertsch and Michael Joyce have both scored on interceptions, C.J. McGregor has scored 11 two-point conversions, and Gage Meyer is 12 for 13 on point after kicks. The Bears have only punted twice this season, with Mike Joyce averaging 39 yards per punt.

The offensive line has also been important in the Bears’ success this season, with Carter Schwab, Kayden Graves, and Nate Leerar all getting big blocks throughout the season. Senior Carter McGregor is another starter who has come up big on both sides of the ball—racking up big runs and key tackles throughout the season. The Bears have two more regular season games—facing Northwood—Kensett and West Bend—Mallard. They’ll move on to playoffs October 24, and their goal is to take back the state championship trophy they won two years ago.

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Ethan Marso. Here to tell you about him is Sacha Alesch.

Football is by far Ethan Marso’s biggest activity. He’s been a varsity starter all through school and is looking to win another state championship this year. He plays running back and linebacker, and he’s also done many of the Bears’ kickoffs. Ethan has also been to state in track, and when he was younger he was a wrestler. Away from sports, Ethan enjoys playing guitar, and he also works for Miller Construction. Next year he plans to study powerline technology at Northwest Community College in Sheldon. Best wishes, Ethan!

Thanks, Sacha! On our Golden Bear calendar, today is Algona Band Day. Both the high school and middle school bands will march in the parade at 1pm, and at 5:45 tonight the high school will be part of the field competition.

Monday night the JV football team will be playing at North Union. Then on Tuesday the volleyball team hosts West Hancock, and cross-country will be running at Eagle Grove.

Wednesday is the Catholic Choral Festival, with the concert at St. Edmond at 7:00 that night. We’ll have a school mass Wednesday morning. Then on Thursday the volleyball team travels to Newell—Fonda.

Friday the football team travels to Northwood—Kensett. There’s a swim meet at Johnston on Saturday, and also that day is the state marching band contest in Ft. Dodge.

Finally this week, we want to congratulate Garrigan graduate Thomas Kollasch, who was ordained a transitional deacon this past Thursday. Tommy will be studying in Rome for another term before his final ordination as a priest next summer.

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