The Bear Facts
September 6, 2025

Good morning! I’m Shiloh Trainer!
 

I’m Harper Nelson!

And I’m Graclyn Eastman! Welcome once again to the “Bear Facts”, where we’re getting ready for Homecoming here at Bishop Garrigan High School.

Homecoming 2025 is this coming week. The theme this year is “Let the Battle Begin”, and it should be a fun time for everyone. The special dress themes this year include “Heroes vs. Villains” on Monday, “Athletes vs. Mathletes” on Tuesday, and “Blue Collar vs. White Collar” on Thursday. Wednesday will be our traditional Class Color Day, with the seniors in black, the juniors in white, the sophomores in blue, and the freshmen in yellow. Then on Friday we’ll celebrate the school with Black and Gold Day.

We’ll be continuing a thirty-year tradition with the Homecoming Battle of the Classes. This year’s games include spikeball, volleyball, trivia, Kan Jam, ultimate frisbee, bucket ball, home run derby, kickball, pickleball, bean bag toss, and dodgeball.

We’ll also have pie eating, hot dog eating, and Gatorade chug contests, plus tug-of-war, egg relays, McDonalds mile, Hungary Hippo, and a schoolwide dodgeball tournament. In addition the classes will compete with parade banners and a lip sync contest. There’s also a food pantry challenge and a rock-paper-scissors contest during the week.

Homecoming week kicks off on Monday with the coronation and pep rally at 9am. This year’s king candidates are Amaury Thomas, Carter Schwab, Ethan Marso, and Tate Foertsch, while the queen candidates are Ava Roethler, Alyssa Haugland, Emmi Bartolo, and Sacha Alesch. Most of the other big events will be Friday—including mass at noon, the parade at 2pm, and the Homecoming dance following the football game that night.

The year has gotten off to a good start for all the fall sports at Garrigan. The volleyball team began their season with a big straight set victory on the road at Belmond. At the core of this year’s team are returning seniors Alyssa Haugland, Emmi Bartolo, Allison Denker, and Hailee Reutzel. Joining them are juniors Graclyn Eastman, Eva Kohlhaas, and Shiloh Trainer, and sophomores Madelyn Tigges, Jenna Peterson, Cate Birkey, Emma Garman, and Kiah Villareal.

There are also has five freshmen out for volleyball: Addi Bartolo, Ava Besch, Kinley Eastman, Rylee Garman, and Riklya Nielson. Good luck all season long to Coach Schnurr and the Golden Bear volleyball team!

The lone senior in cross-country is Rosanne Curtis—Ricke, and she’s starting off the year with an injury. Sophomore Julia Swift has been leading the team, with medals at both the meets so far this year. Junior Sheila Reding and freshmen Rachel Kahle and Emma Kollasch round out the girls team. On the boys’ side the top runner has been freshman Caiden Buchner, followed by junior Corbin Darling. Good luck, cross-country!

There are nineteen girls on the fall cheer squad this year, one of the biggest groups we’ve had in years. They’re led by seniors Addison Kuper, Ava Roethler, Sacha Alesch, Ava Snider, and Aubrey Meyer. The juniors on the spirit squad are Harper Nelson and Kylie Capesius, and Bree Ludwig. The cheerleaders also include sophomores Delaney Fessler—Arndorfer, Lilly Erpelding—Wickman, Brooklyn Berte, Jayden Deike; and freshmen Lucy Eisenbarth, Avery Culbertson, Faith Glawe, Leah Reutzel, Olivia Roethler, Piper Roethler, and Hope Rooney.

Again this year the cheerleaders have been doing jumping jacks for every point on the scoreboard each time the Golden Bears score at their football games. They got a big workout last week when the Bears scored enough times to make them do 276 jumping jacks. Fans have pledged money for each jumping jack, which helps offset the cheer team’s expenses.

Our senior spotlight this week shines on Addison Kuper. Here to tell you about her is Sacha Alesch.

Addison Kuper has been a cheerleader all through school. She’s part of both the football and basketball cheer squads. Addison is also in band and golf, and she’s also one of the student council officers representing the Class of 2026. Away from school she works at the movie theatre. After high school Addison wants to major in early childhood education, and we wish her all the best in the future.

Thanks, Sacha. On our Golden Bear calendar this week, the JV volleyball team has a tournament at Algona High this morning, and there’s also a theatre workshop this afternoon. Tomorrow Homecoming week begins.

The Homecoming coronation will be Monday at 9am, with the festivities broadcast here on KLGA. Monday night there’s JV football at Newell—Fonda. Then Tuesday there’s cross-country at Estherville and the volleyball team plays at Eagle Grove.

Wednesday will be the Battle of the Classes for Homecoming. Then on Thursday there’s a home volleyball match, with the girls taking on Garner—Hayfield—Ventura.

Friday at noon we’ll have our Homecoming mass in the Garrigan chapel. There’s a lip sync contest at 1pm, and the parade will head down State Street at 2:00. Friday night at 7:00 the Golden Bear football team will take on North Iowa.
 

The Homecoming dance follows Friday’s game. Then next Saturday morning the cross-country team will run in the CYO meet over in Holstein.

That’s the “Bear Facts” for this week. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to tune in again next week for all the results from Homecoming week here at Bishop Garrigan High School.