Good morning! I’m Kayden Graves!

I’m Aidan Deitering!

And I’m Emmi Bartolo! Welcome once again to the “Bear Facts”, where we’ve got another week of celebration here at Bishop Garrigan High School.

Last week we cheered “on to state” for the Golden Bear girls. Last weekend the cheer widened to include the boys as well. In the substate game last Saturday at Mason City the Bears came from behind to beat South Winneshiek and earn the right to go to state. Bishop Garrigan trailed throughout the first half, but they made a big defensive adjustment, and the switch to zone shut down South Winneshiek. A mix of good shooting put the Bears ahead, and they went on to win 73 – 60.

It’s interesting that four of the eight teams that made it to state in Class 1-A are Catholic schools. The Bears have the #3 seed in the state tournament, but they already beat top-seeded Ft. Dodge St. Edmond during the regular season, and they’ll face the #6 seed, Marquette Catholic from Bellevue, in their first game at state. That game will be next Tuesday at 7:15pm down at the Casey’s Center in Des Moines. A win on Tuesday will advance the Bears to the state semi-final, which will be Thursday afternoon. The 1-A state championship is Friday at 5pm.

Five starters—Tate Foertsch, Mike Joyce, Madden Miller, Carter Schwab, and Amaury Thomas—have been at the core of the Golden Bear team this season. In fact, in the substate game, only one other player—freshman Jack Muller—subbed off the bench. Michael Joyce has been the Bears top scorer, averaging just under 20 points per game. Mike scored a career high 40 points in the district championship against Nashua—Plainfield. Three other players—Amaury Thomas, Carter Schwab, and Tate Foertsch—have all averaged in double digits throughout the season, and in the substate game Madden Miller came up strong with 11 points, including a couple of clutch threes.

Amaury Thomas is also the Bears’ top rebounder, grabbing 325 boards so far this year. Tate Foertsch and Carter Schwab also have triple digit rebounds. Carter has racked up 150 assists this season, and he broke the school’s career assist record. Carter also leads the team in steals, though all five starters have gotten more than 20 steals this season. Amaury Thomas is far and away the leader in blocked shots. All five starters have multiple blocks, though, as do bench players Jack Muller and Brad Meister.

None of the Bears’ games have come down to free throws, but the team has shown they can score from the line too. Mike Joyce has made 77% of his free throw attempts, and Amaury Thomas, Tate Foertsch, and Madden Miller are all over 60% from the line. Among the bench players Weston Rosenmeyer and Milo Geving have been the top two-point shooters, Brad Meister leads in threes, and Karson Sidles and Nate Leerar have done well from the line. We know everyone will step up and give it their best effort at state.

Two other Garrigan students are also headed to state. Alice Casey and Eva Kohlhaas both competed in the Storytelling category at the district individual speech contest last Saturday in Newell, and both of them earned Division 1 or “excellent” ratings. Alice and Eva now advance to the state speech contest, which will be held next Saturday in Denison. Congratulations to them!

Last Monday we held the 51st annual academic honors night at Bishop Garrigan. A major part of the event this year was the induction of new members to the honor society. The organization honors juniors who excel in academics, activities, service, and Christian leadership. This year twenty-three juniors were inducted, which is the highest percentage we’ve had from any class.

Honor society inductees from the Class of 2027 include Matt Besch, Marshall Bormann, Kylie Capesius, Alice Casey, Corbin Darling, and Cora Deardeuff; as well as Aidan Deitering, Graclyn Eastman, Milo Geving, Sawyer Herrick, and Josephine Joyce. Also inducted were Mike Joyce, Dalton Klenz, Eva Kohlhaas, Nate Leerar, and Bree Ludwig; plus Madden Miller, Harper Nelson, Sheila Reding, Gavin Rogers, Karson Sidles, Leo Snyder, and Shiloh Trainer.

The senior members of the honor society helped with the induction ceremony. Seniors in honor society are Gabe Swift, Ava Snider, Carter Schwab, Ava Roethler, and Hailee Reutzel; as well as Carley Nielson, Aubrey Meyer, Ethan Marso, Addison Kuper, and Alyssa Haugland. Rounding out the honorees are Kayden Graves, Tate Foertsch, Allison Denker, Kyle Bormann, Emmi Bartolo, and Sacha Alesch. Congratulations to all the members of the Bishop Garrigan Honor Society!

Because of all the basketball excitement we’re skipping our senior spotlight again this week. On our Golden Bear calendar, the 1-A girls basketball championship is tonight at 7pm. There’s mass scheduled for 1pm tomorrow in the Garrigan chapel, followed by a welcome back for the girls.

Monday afternoon at 2:15 we’ll have a pep rally to send the boys basketball team off to state. Then Tuesday will be a black and gold day at school.

We’ll have a full day of school on Tuesday. The boys basketball team plays their opener at state at 7:00 Tuesday night against Bellevue Marquette.

Because of the game Tuesday night we’ll have a late start at Garrigan and Seton on Wednesday. There will be parish busing that day.

Wednesday night there will be a lower elementary concert at Garrigan. A boys’ win on Tuesday will mean no school on Thursday, because the Bears will play in the state semifinals at 3:45 that afternoon.

The boys’ state championship will be Friday at 5pm. If the Bears advance to the finals, we’ll have a noon dismissal at Garrigan and Seton that day. Finally next Saturday there’s the state speech contest in Denison.

That’s the “Bear Facts” for this week. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to tune in next week, when we hope to be celebrating more good news from Bishop Garrigan High School.

EVERYONE: Go Bears!