THE BEAR FACTS
February 7, 2026


Good morning! I’m Tate Foertsch!

I’m Kayden Graves!

And I’m Aidan Deitering! Welcome once again to the “Bear Facts”, the weekly radio show from Bishop Garrigan High School.

Last weekend, at about the time the “Bear Facts” was airing, Garrigan’s Viva Voce jazz choir was competing at the state vocal jazz contest in Clear Lake. The group had a great performance and earned a division I rating. Viva Voce is one of the top eight small school jazz choirs in the state, and that means they’ll be advancing to the Iowa High School Vocal Jazz Championships.

Students in jazz choir include Amaury Thomas, Tate Foertsch, Kayden Graves, Kyle Bormann, Gabe Swift, and Matt Besch, as well as Sacha Alesch, Shiloh Trainer, Cora Deardeuff, Madelyn Tigges, Lilly Wickman, Delaney Fessler, Abby Deardeuff, Lucy Eisenbarth, and Anaya Thomas. Congratulations to the Viva Voce jazz choir!

Today two Garrigan students are down in Coralville as part of the Algona Bulldog wrestling team that is competing at the state dual meet. At the regional duals last Tuesday C.J. McGregor won by major decision and Carter McGregor edged past his opponent to help Algona beat Osage to win the trip to state. We wish good luck to Carter, C.J., and all their teammates as they compete at state today.

Five Garrigan speech groups are competing today at the state large group speech contest in Cherokee. The Bears’ television news entry will be just after nine o’clock this morning. The second entry of the day will be in Radio Broadcasting at 11:30. This afternoon Readers’ Theatre will perform around 12:45, Group Improvisation will be around 1:45, and Ensemble Acting will go at 2:30. The contest is at Washington High School in Cherokee.

As part of the Catholic Schools Week celebration last week, Bishop Garrigan officially announced our new capital campaign. There are several stages to the campaign. The main focus of the first part is to deal with rapid growth in the lower elementary grades. A new addition will be built at Seton that will allow the school to accommodate three sections of each grade level. Another big part of the first phase will be rebuilding the bleachers and pressbox at Conway Field.

Later phases of the capital campaign will build parking for the chapel and a drop-off area for the elementary wing at Garrigan. Bathrooms will also be renovated, and a new weightroom and multipurpose area will be added. The final phase will include a new bus barn that will also house our suburbans and pick-up. That should make transportation go much more smoothly in winter.

The Sioux City Diocese requires that we secure five million dollars before we break ground on the addition at Seton. We’ve already raised over three million, and we’re hoping to get the balance in the next month or so. That would allow construction to begin this spring. The new football bleachers would be ready next fall, and the addition at Seton would open in the fall of 2027. We encourage everyone to help out in meeting the goals for our new capital campaign.



The regular season is almost over for Golden Bear basketball, and both the boys and girls should be Top of Iowa Conference champions. The girls secured at least a tie for the conference championship with a big win over Forest City last Tuesday. The team also set the all-time single game scoring record, putting up 102 points against Eagle Grove last week. On the way to the conference championship, both Sacha Alesch and Graclyn Eastman passed the 1,000 career point mark.

The boys effectively wrapped up a conference championship with their 16-game win streak through most of the season. Carter Schwab and Michael Joyce both passed 1,000 career points, and Carter also broke the career assist record set by Brad Nelson a quarter century ago. Both the boys and girls will finish their conference season at North Iowa Tuesday before starting playoffs.
 

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Carley Nielson. Carley was a big part of the girls’ win over Forest City that secured the conference championship. She scored three 3-pointers and played outstanding defense all through the game. In addition to basketball, Carley is also part of the softball team, and she works on the stage crew for plays and music events. She’d like to be a dental hygienist in the future, and we wish her all the best after high school.

Thanks, On our Golden Bear calendar, there’s state speech today in Cherokee and state dual wrestling in Coralville. Also today the swim team has their regional meet in Mason City.

Tuesday the basketball teams wrap up the regular season at North Iowa—Buffalo Center. We’ll have mass on Wednesday, and midterm grades are due that day.

Basketball playoffs officially begin late next week, but both the Garrigan girls and boys should have byes in the opening rounds. Finally boys district wrestling will be next Saturday.

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.