The Bear Facts
May 9, 2026

Good morning! I’m Kayden Graves!

I’m Aubrey Meyer!

I’m Emmi Bartolo!

And I’m Hailee Reutzel! Welcome to a special episode of the “Bear Facts”, where we’re saluting the Class of 2026 here at Bishop Garrigan High School.

Bishop Garrigan’s sixty-seventh graduation ceremony will take place at two o’clock tomorrow afternoon. Twenty-eight seniors—sixteen boys and twelve girls—will walk across the stage tomorrow. Two more of our classmates graduated early and received their diplomas a year ago.

Alyssa Haugland will deliver the senior speech at graduation. Aubrey Meyer and Addison Kuper will lead the class prayer and announce the gift to the school from the Class of 2026. Numerous awards and scholarships will also be presented. If you can’t attend in person, you can listen to the commencement ceremony here on KLGA.

The Class of 2026 has made a big impact on Garrigan. In sports we’ve been one of the most successful classes in school history. Our football team has been to state three times, won two state championships, and they’re the only team in school history to finish the season undefeated. Three Golden Bear seniors—Tate Foertsch, Kayden Graves, and Carter Schwab—have signed to play college football.

The Bears have also continued a dynasty in girls basketball—going to state each of the past four years. This year the seniors led the team to the state championship game, and on the way they became the only girls basketball team in Garrigan history to score over 100 points in a game. Senior Sacha Alesch will be playing college basketball next year.

The boys basketball team also made it to state this year, with three seniors at the core of the team. Seniors have also made state appearances in track and golf, and they’ve earned conference championships and gone deep in playoffs in baseball and softball.

The Bears have also excelled in dance and competitive cheerleading over the past four years. They’ve won multiple state team championships, and several individual dancers have also competed at state. Senior Rosanne Curtis—Ricke plans to continue dancing at the college level.

The seniors have also excelled in the arts. It was recently announced that that the Iowa Musical Theatre Association had selected Amaury Thomas and Sacha Alesch for the Triple Threat Award for their performances in The Addams Family last fall. This is the second year Sacha has won that honor.

Seniors in the Viva Voce jazz choir have been to state repeatedly, most recently taking second place overall. Seniors have led groups to earn I’s at state in both music and speech, and Alyssa Haugland and Lucas Behounek have won multiple visual art awards. Many seniors have also had good success in quiz bowl, DECA, and the Envirothon.

After our baccalaureate mass last Wednesday many awards were announced. Among them were the departmental honors presented by Bishop Garrigan and the Top of Iowa Conference. Tate Foertsch won the math award, Ava Snider was honored in English, Sacha Alesch was the top science student, and Kyle Bormann won the social studies award.

Kayden Graves was honored by both the business and music departments, Ethan Marso won the vocational award, Alyssa Haugland earned top honors in visual arts, and Amaury Thomas won the speech and drama award. Hailee Reutzel took foreign language honors, and Kegan Berte won the technical award. In theology Ava Roethler took academic honors, and Addison Kuper got the “Service Above Self” award. Congratulations to all these award winners.

Members of the Class of 2026 were asked to give their advice to younger Golden Bears. Some were pretty generic—like “Be kind to everybody”, “Try your best at everything”, “Just be yourself”, “Do your homework”, and “Don’t worry—be happy”. Konner Kramer said “School should be fun, not stressful”, and Ethan Marso said “Do all the hard work first, and have fun later”.

Carter McGregor challenged the younger kids to join him and “win a state title”, and Ava Snider said everyone should “Go out for football cheer”. Alyssa Haugland said they should “branch out and try new activities”, and Amaury Thomas said they should “try out for everything”. Finally Kayden Graves said “Sleep is optional—stay out, and have fun”.

There’s been a big change at Conway Field over the past couple weeks. With funding committed to our capital campaign, the old bleachers and pressbox have been torn down. Over the summer they’ll be replaced with a newer and nicer grandstand which will be ready in time for next fall’s football season. This is just the first part of the changes coming from our capital campaign.

We’ve finished our Senior Spotlights for the year, so it’s time to look at our Golden Bear calendar. There’s a home trapshooting meet this morning, and lots of people will have their graduation receptions this afternoon and evening.

Tomorrow is graduation day. The commencement ceremony is at 2pm, and it will be broadcast on KLGA. Monday Bishop Garrigan will be hosting a coed junior high track meet on the North Union track in Armstrong.

The Top of Iowa Conference golf meets will be on Monday. The girls meet is at West Hancock, and the boys will play at Belmond. Then on Tuesday the school board will meet.

Wednesday there’s boys sectional golf at Lake Mills. There’s a parent meeting for next year’s dance team Wednesday night.

Thursday and Friday the freshmen, sophomores, and juniors have semester tests. The conference art show will be at Waldorf College on Thursday, and the conference track meet is Thursday night at St. Ansgar. Finally next Friday there’s girls sectional golf.

That’s the last “Bear Facts” for us seniors. Thanks for listening. Some younger students will be here next week with for one last show, where they’ll wrap up the year and preview the summer activities here at Bishop Garrigan High School. Until then, good-bye from all of us in the BGHS.

EVERYONE: Class of 2026!