The Bear Facts
September 6, 2014
Good morning! I’m Zac Kibby!
And I’m Ben Vaske! Thanks for tuning in to the “Bear Facts”, your weekly radio update from Bishop Garrigan High School.
Garrigan has been well known for almost twenty years for our website, which has always been one of the largest and most photo-filled school websites in the country. We’ve had some questions this fall about what happened to it. Well, what happened is that now instead of one website, we’ve got two. Over the summer, at the request of the Diocese of Sioux City, our traditional domain—bishopgarrigan.org—changed to a new format similar to that used by other the Catholic schools in northwest Iowa. That site is now maintained by our development office and continues to offer the latest school information.
Everything that you used to find on our website is still around, though. It’s just moved. The student-produced site now has the web address bggoldenbears.org. Except for the address, though, everything is still the same. You’ll still find thousands of action shots from every sport and activity, as well as candid shots from around the school. You can also find the all-time sports records, an alumni section with pictures from every year of our school’s history, maps to out-of-town sports sites, and even audio files of all our broadcasts of the “Bear Facts”.
Garrigan has had a student-produced website ever since 1995, and it continues today at bggoldenbears.org. This fall Morgan Hanna, Jacub Thul, Jacob Berte, Logan Rosenmeyer, Alex McGuire, Andrew Lallier, and Chase Winkel are maintaining the site. They’re enrolled in Mr. Burrow’s Specialized Technology Topics class. Both the old and new websites are easily linked back and forth. Every page of bggoldenbears.org links directly to bishopgarrigan.org, and if you go to the new site, you can just click on “old website” to go the student-created site. Wherever you go, we encourage you to check out everything Garrigan has to offer online.
Garrigan’s teachers and administration have come up with a new way to help students who are having problems in the classroom. Called the After School Achievement Program, or ASAP, it’s designed to make sure students are up-to-date on their assignments. Each Friday students are notified of any work they have missing. They have until Tuesday to complete it. Those who don’t are automatically assigned to the after-school program, which takes priority over activities or practices. Only a few students have been affected, and the goal is to help everyone succeed in all their classes.
This past week the cast was announced for the Bishop Garrigan fall musical. We’ll be presenting The Sound of Music, with performances November 7 and 8. Dorothy Kirsch will star as Maria, the nun who sings her way into everyone’s heart. Mark Fakler will be Captain Georg Von Trapp. Betty Straub is the Mother Abbess, and other sisters include Carolyn Baxter, Taylor Becker, and Caitlin Thilges.
The Von Trapp family includes Tony Kollasch, Mariah Bronk, Levi Capesius, Isabelle Davis, Skyland Meraz, and Chloe Garman. Others in the cast include Johanna Vaske, Taylor Illg, Morgan Frideres, Nick Kayser, Zach Kollasch, and Grace Menke. Rounding out the group are Taylor Frideres, James Quinlin, Andrew Thilges, Andrew Meister, Sam Trainer, Jedd Magill, Stephen McCall, Rebecca Bonstetter, and Danielle Plathe. Mark your calendar now for November 7 and 8 to see The Sound of Music.
Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Patricia Brandt. Here to tell you about her is Zach Boelter.
Patricia Brandt is one of our Homecoming queen candidates. She’s an Algona native whose main activities are volleyball and dance. She was a defensive MVP who won all-area honors in volleyball. She helped lead the danz squad to first place at state, and was also named an All-American Dancer. Away from Garrigan, you might see this honor student working at the KC Hall. She’s planning to go to UNI next year, and she’d like to be a history teacher. We wish her all the best in the future.
Thanks, Zach! On our Golden Bear calendar this week, there’s a volleyball tournament today at Algona High. Also today students trying out for all-state choir have a district rehearsal in Belmond.
Tomorrow is the Wesley Fall Festival. Monday the JV football team hosts Clarion. Tuesday is school picture day. That night the volleyball team travels to North Iowa, and there’s cross-country at Estherville.
We’ll have mass Wednesday morning. The calendar drive continues, with another turn-in day on Wednesday. Then on Thursday the volleyball team plays Garner and West Hancock at Britt.
Friday the football team hosts Nashua—Plainfield. Finally next Saturday there’s volleyball at Emmetsburg and the CYO cross-country meet in Holstein.
That’s our first “Bear Facts” for September. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to catch the show again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.