The Bear Facts
March 9, 2013
Good morning! I’m Grace Steil!
I’m Shawn Vaske!
And I’m Allison Frideres! Thanks for joining us for
the “Bear Facts”, your weekly radio updated from Bishop Garrigan High School!
Today is state speech contest. Bishop Garrigan has
sixteen entries in the state individual contest, which is being held today at
Algona High. The bulk of the entries are this morning. Already today Dorothy
Kirsch has performed in Prose, Mark Fakler in After-Dinner Speaking, and Erica
Carlson in Storytelling. Before this hour is over, Alissa Kirsch will perform in
Poetry, Levi Bernhard in Improvisation, and Dorothy Kirsch and Amelia Golwitzer
in Storytelling.
Coming up later this morning will be Poetry selections
from Erica Carlson and Hannah Bernhard, Improvisation by Mark Fakler, Acting
from Matthew Fakler, and Musical Theatre selections by Christian and Alex
Matthews. Shawn Vaske will perform in Musical Theatre this afternoon, and Hannah
Bernhard will present a Prose selection. Garrigan’s last performance of the day
will be Matthew Fakler in Improvisation. Best wishes to Coaches Mary McCall and
David Burrow and all the speech team.
Last Saturday the Bishop Garrigan math team competed
in a Great Plains Math League tournament over at Dordt College in Sioux Center.
It was a very close competition, but the Bears ended up winning by a score of 95
points to 941/3 points for second place Sioux Center. Kylie Fox, Devin Degen,
Carolyn Baxter, Dorothy Kirsch, Zach Kollasch, Tony Kollasch, Jake Hamilton,
Brittany Kirsch, and Allison Frideres all won medals for finishing among the top
three in their classes. Congratulations to Coach Daryl Kohlhaas and the math
team!
While there have been lots of conflicts with math team
tournaments, the group has done very well all year long. Nine Golden Bears have
qualified for the state math tournament, which will be Saturday, April 20, in
Iowa City. Allison Fridered, Jake Hamilton, and Kaitlyn Fogarty qualified for
state in both the individual and team divisions. Makayla Foertsch, Dorothy
Kirsch, and Kylie Fox qualified as individuals; and Brittany Kirsch, Zach
Kollasch, and exchange student Sia qualified as part of teams.
The danz squad’s trip to nationals is just around the
corner. They’ll have their spring show next Sunday, March 17, and soon after
that they’ll be headed to Texas for a national competition in Fort Worth. The
Bears won the state championship last December, and we wish the very best of
luck to Coach Colleen Conway-Schiltz and all the danz squad as they compete at
nationals.
Next Friday night will be the third annual Bishop
Garrigan Community Quiz Bowl. There’s still time to register a team for the
event, and we’d like to see as many competitors as possible from all over the
area. Teams of any size are welcome, with one to five players competing on a
team at a time. The entry fee is $25 per team. You can find more information on
the BGHS website, or contact Jake Hamilton by calling 320 – 4135 or emailing
jdhami19@gmail.com. Come for the fun of the community quiz bowl next Friday at
Garrigan.
There’s always something new on the BGHS website. For
fifteen years now our website has been designed and maintained by Garrigan
students. This year seniors John Burns and Jason Reding are in charge of the
site, under the supervision of Mr. David Burrow. Among the recent additions is a
feature on Amelia Golwitzer, Noelle Vitzthum, and Logan Kumm’s service trip to
Haiti. You can check out that and all the other features at Garrigan’s home
online—bishopgarrigan.org.
Again this year you can go to the BGHS website to vote
for the All-Intramural basketball team. Selection for the award comes from a
combination of the online voting and points scored at intramural games. Voting
will be available online for the next two weeks, and the winners will be
announced at the intramural championship game later this spring.
Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Thomas
Bradley. Tom is a Burt native who goes to St. John the Baptist Parish in
Bancroft. He’s probably best known for his accomplishments in football, but he
also keeps busy with intramural basketball, golf, student council, and
announcing here on the “Bear Facts”. After graduation he plans to go to Hawkeye
Community College in Waterloo. We wish Thomas all the best in the future.
On this week’s Golden Bear calendar, there’s state
individual speech contest today. Then at 2am tomorrow Daylight Savings Time
begins, with the clock shooting ahead and everyone losing an hour of sleep.
Intramural basketball continues tomorrow afternoon.
Then on Monday golf practice starts. With snow on the ground, the team will
likely be practicing at the golf academy down in St. Joe.
Tuesday there will be another Christian Leadership
service trip to the Mary’s Place mission in Minneapolis. That night the junior
high will have their annual variety show.
Wednesday several student council members will head
down to the Iowa Hall of Pride in Des Moines for the North Central Conference
Leadership Seminar. We’ll have a reconciliation service during school that day.
Next Friday there’s sixth and eighth grade orientation
at Garrigan. That afternoon the danz squad has a clinic at the Rochleau Center.
Then Friday night there’s the big community quiz bowl at Garrigan.
Finally next Saturday the Wartburg College Band will
be performing at Garrigan. The band includes former Golden Bears Alex Hamilton
and Becky Jennings, and they’ll perform numbers with our current musicians.
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.
