THE BEAR FACTS
October 8, 2022

Good morning! I’m Eva Snyder!

I’m Garrett Heying!

And I’m Avery Berte! Thanks for joining us for the “Bear Facts”, the weekly radio update from Bishop Garrigan High School.

Last Saturday Garrigan’s Solid Gold Marching Band competed at Algona Band Day. The Bears ended up taking first place among small schools in both the parade and field competitions. They’re in action again this morning at the state marching band contest. The Bears are the first band on the schedule. They’ll be performing at 9:30am down at Dodger Stadium in Ft. Dodge. Best wishes to Director Katherine Wiemers; drum majors Savannah Waechter, Joey Doerning, and Audi Crooks; and the whole Solid Gold Marching Band!

Next week all the Golden Bear fall sports will celebrate senior night. The football team has an especially large group of seniors this year. Jack Grandgenett, Garrett Heying, Cal Birkey, Aidan Hovey, Matt Kolllasch, Nate Bronk, Drew Casey, Drew Fogarty, and Caleb Bormann have all been starters for the Bears this fall, and senior Connor Davis is manager for the Golden Bears.




There’s only one senior out for cross-country, but so far Gavin Swift has medaled at every single meet. In volleyball seniors Molly Joyce, Eva Snyder, Ashlyn Hovey, Maggie Vaske, and Audi Crooks have all been in the Bears’ regular rotation. The fall spirit squad includes senior cheerleaders Emma Bacha, Avery Berte, Lydia Erpelding, Ellie Rosenmeyer, Zoey Von Bank, and Savannah Waechter.

Senior night for the volleyball team will be next Tuesday, when the Bears host Webster City. On Friday night the football team will host Northwood—Kensett, and we’ll have senior night for football, cross-country, and cheerleading. We’ll also honor the senior band members that night. They include Savannah Waechter, Maggie Vaske, Gavin Swift, Eli Ricke, Joey Doerning, Audi Crooks, Drew Casey, Nate Bronk, Caleb Bormann, and Jordan Blocker. Congratulations, seniors!

At our student mass last Tuesday we installed nine seniors as extraordinary ministers of holy communion. They will serve the eucharist at our school masses and also in their local parish churches. The new eucharistic ministers are Emma Bacha, Drew Casey, Garrett Heying, Gavin Swift, and Zoey Von Bank; plus Maggie Vaske, Joey Doerning, Eva Snyder, and Nate Bronk. Congratulations to all these new communion servers.

Quiz bowl season is almost here. Twenty-five Garrigan students are part of the quiz bowl team this year. At the core of the team are seniors Garrett Heying, Eva Snyder, Avery Berte, and Gavin Swift. The Bears will start their season with their home meet next Saturday. We’ll tell you more about that meet on next week’s show.




Last Tuesday we had a fun morning with a special assembly called “Think Fast”. This was an interactive game show that combined general trivia with information that’s useful for safe driving. Junior Sam Plathe was the overall winner, with senior Avery Berte close behind. Sophomores Scott Bormann and Griffin Geving were also in the final four; and juniors Ben Greteman and Brendan Plathe were part of the highest-scoring team. Thanks to Coach Wadle and the SAFE committee for sponsoring this event.

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Caleb Bormann. Here to tell you about him is Reagan Murphy.

If you’ve seen the Bear mascot at a Golden Bear basketball game, you’ve seen Caleb Bormann. Some of Caleb’s proudest moments were when he was giving high fives to little kids who were watching the Bears at state. This St. Joe native plays end in football, and he’s also part of the trapshooting team. He loves mechanical work, and in the future he plans to continue the tradition on his family farm. We know Caleb will have a great senior year, and we wish him all the best after high school.

Thanks Reagan. On our Golden Bear calendar this week, today is the state marching band contest. The Bears are competing at 9:30 down in Ft. Dodge.

Monday there’s picture re-takes at Garrigan. The JV football team will play at St. Edmond that night, there’s swimming in Spencer, and the cross-country team will finish their regular season with a meet at Forest City.

We’ll have mass on Tuesday. That night the volleyball team will close out their regular season by hosting Webster City for senior night. Wednesday will the 8th grade retreat, and that morning some sophomores will take the PSAT.

Thursday is the Top of Iowa Conference cross-country meet at NIACC in Mason City. Friday the football team hosts Northwood—Kensett for senior night. The danz squad will serve a chili supper at the game.

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