Good morning! I'm Bob Brandenburg!
And I'm Mike McAlpine! Welcome once again to the "Bear
Facts", KLGA's weekly radio update with all the news from Bishop Garrigan High
School.
After a long winter pause, the quiz bowl team should be back in action today. Six Garrigan students are on their way to Ames for "Cyclone Bowl 2.5", Iowa State University's spring high school competition. Sophomore John Kohlhaas will be the Golden Bear captain today. Accompanying him to Ames are senior Mandy Rahm, juniors Steven Kellner and Mike Blocker, sophomore Jesse Bode, and freshman Jacob Richter. The tournament is heavy on big schools from the Des Moines area, but we're hoping the Bears will hold their own in competition.
Many members of the quiz bowl team are looking forward to the summer, when BGHS will make its fifth trip to the National Academic Championships. In late May the Bears will be loading up the school suburbans and headed south to the Big Easy for the 20th annual national tournament in New Orleans. Bob Brandenburg will be the Bears' captain at nationals. Other veteran seniors include Rebecca McGuire, Chris Kohlhaas, and Mandy Rahm. The team also includes juniors David Murphy and Steven Kellner, sophomores John Kohlhaas and Rachel McGuire, and freshman Matt Courtney. Plans have just been finalized for their trip, which will take them to parts of eleven states, with overnight stops in Arkansas, Alabama, and Ohio, as well as Louisiana. We'll update you on the plans as the trip gets closer.
The quiz bowl team is not the only group competing this weekend. HOSA stands for the Health Occupations Students of America, and this weekend they're having their statewide competition in Des Moines. ILCC instructor Jeanne Wunder is in charge of a HOSA group that includes both Garrigan and Algona High students, and she's confident that they'll do extremely well at state. The HOSA competitors include Jamie Loebig, Adam Raney, Matt Studer, and Ashley Thompson. They expect to do especially well in the field of biomedical debate. Good luck to all of them at state!
Also this weekend there's the All-Iowa Drill Team. Five Garrigan seniors were selected to this prestigious squad, and they'll be performing today in Des Moines. Congratulations to Allison Courtney, Stephanie Hilbert, Jamie Roethler, Laura Seeley, and Monica Studer, as well as to danz squad coach Colleen Conway-Schiltz! You can see them and all the danz squad in their annual spring show on Sunday night.
The regular season of intramural basketball finishes up tomorrow, and we thought we'd update you on some of the younger players who have been participating this year. Jim Garman heads up a team that is made up entirely of freshmen. They include last week's top scorer, Jordan Kajewski, as well as Mitch Buscher, Brandon Stone, Tim Richter, Donnie Monson, and Sam Dittrich. Mason Elbert is captain of an all-sophomore team that includes Josh Broesder, Grant Vaske, Ben Kramer, Andrew Thilges, and Kris Sutter.
One of the more aggressive intramural teams is captained by junior Mark McGregor. His teammates are Mark Steier, Adam Gisch, Mark Kollasch, Jerry Kohlhaas, Drew Miller, Lee Elbert, Tyler Rahm, Zac Lickteig, and John Stetzel. Sophomore Jason Lallier's team is in third place overall right now. Other players on that team include Miles Berte, Colby Reding, Nick Golwitzer, Bobby Murphy, Rose Mayer, and Lindsay Schiltz. The final team runs the span of ages, from sophomores through seniors. Zac McGuire is their captain, and his fellow players include Andrew Kollasch, Jon Hanig, Jimmy Syharath, and Mike
McAlpine.
Garrigan students recently participated in the annual Computer Match compatibility surveys. In addition to cards telling who we should get along with, the school also learned the most popular responses to each question. For example, we found out that most students think they should work a few years after college before getting married, the famous person they would most like to meet is Sammy Sosa, and most people would rather have happiness than fame. We also found out that the majority of people are not really bothered by vulgarity, they don't really like people who smoke, and if they won the lottery, they'd spend the money freely. We found that the first thing most people notice in the opposite sex is their eyes, their favorite movie is American Pie, and their favorite sport is basketball. Everything in the surveys is just for fun, but it's interesting to know what people are like and who they are compatible with.
This week's Senior Spotlight shines on Nick Lane and Melissa Lancaster. Here to tell you about them is
Teresa McGuire.
Nick Lane main activities are golf and baseball. He has lettered three times in each of those sports. Nick is an Algona native who is also one of the top scorers in intramural basketball. He'll be off to college next year, and we wish him all the best.
Melissa Lancaster is one of the most independent students at Garrigan. Over the years she has been very active in HOSA. She has used her health knowledge to become a certified first responder. Over the years she's' also participated in cross-country, track, and choir. Melissa is looking at a variety of colleges next year, and we wish her good luck in making her decision.
Thanks, Teresa! On the Golden Bear calendar for this week, there's quiz bowl at ISU and HOSA and all-state drill team in Des Moines today. Then tomorrow we'll have the last of the regular season intramural games, followed by the danz squad's spring show.
Next Tuesday we'll have our Lenten reconciliation service at St. Cecelia's. Thursday we get out early for staff development, and that night is the annual Academic Banquet. Then next Saturday there's the state speech contest in Sibley.
Finally this week we want to welcome back sophomore Adam Arndorfer, who has been away from school for three weeks now. We've been thinking of Adam and praying for him every day he was gone. Several students and teachers enjoyed visiting him up in Rochester, but we'll all be glad to have "Arny" back with us at Garrigan.
That's the "Bear Facts" for another week. Thanks for listening, and be sure to tune in again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.
