Good morning! I’m Ellie Reising!
And I’m Bob Brandenburg! Welcome to another episode of the “Bear Facts”, your weekly radio up-date from Bishop Garrigan High School. The BGHS Solid Gold Marching Band had their best finish in recent years last Saturday at Algona Band Day. Garrigan took second place in their class in the field competition and third in the street parade. Congratulations to director Dennis Freking, field commanders Corrie Stetzel and Amanda Freking, and the whole Solid Gold band on their great show on band day!
There’s some more competition for our musicians today. The band is down in Fort Dodge for the state marching band contest. The competition show includes jazz numbers like “Zoot Suit Riot”, “Jump, Jive, and Wail”, and “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing”. We invite everyone to head on down to Dodger Stadium and catch the Garrigan band performing at state.
Quiz bowl season is here again. The Bears have a top-heavy season, with three straight weekends of competition coming up over the rest of October. It all starts next Saturday, when we’ll be hosting Iowa’s largest quiz bowl tournament right here at Garrigan. The following week the Bears will compete at West Bend/Mallard, and then right before Halloween they’ll be back in town for the Algona High Invitational.
Returning seniors on this year’s quiz bowl team include national tournament veterans Tyler Struck, Dennis Gisch, Nathan Frideres, and Jennifer Reinhart. They’ll be joined by fellow senior John Mosbach, and juniors Angie Kohlhaas, Ellie Reising, and Lynn Kohlhaas. Other juniors in quiz bowl include Ben Lickteig, Scott McGuire, Brad Nelson, Chase Johnson, Ben Richter, Scott Black, Chris Missal, and Bryan McAlpine.
Bob Brandenburg and Rebecca McGuire are among the top sophomore quiz bowlers. Other sophs are Chris Kohlhaas and Adam Rahm. There are also five freshmen out for quiz bowl. They are Steve Kellner, David Murphy, Zac Lickteig, Eric Fouarge, and Alex Vaske. Goof luck to Coach David Burrow and all the quiz bowl team!
Last year on the “Bear Facts” you heard story after story about Adam Sundall, the three-event state champion who broke absolutely every cross-country record at Garrigan. Well, Adam has only been gone for four months now, but those records are already starting to crack. Last Tuesday at Eagle Grove, freshman Matt Studer tied Adam’s all-time freshman record by running the five-kilometer course in just 17 minutes, 59 seconds. What’s more, fellow freshman Jeff Hellman was right behind him, with a time of 18:09. With young runners like that, the future’s looking very bright for Golden Bear cross-country.
There are lots of good runners besides the freshmen. On the boys’ side, sophomores Greg Fowler, Bob Brandenburg, and Jason Walker are also running strong. Three of the girls have been medalling consistently throughout the year—sophomore Teresa McGuire, and juniors Heather Stence and Angie Kohlhaas. Marian Studer and Melissa Lancaster have also been finishing well for the girls.
Those runners now have more of a home when they’re at distant cross-country meets. Just last week the team unveiled their new tent, where runners can stretch, change, and relax. The bright yellow tent with gold lettering also provides a distinctive landmark that fans can use to locate the Golden Bears at meets. The tent was paid for with chili suppers sponsored by the cross-country parents. You can see it next Tuesday, when the Bears run in the North Central Conference meet, right over in Whittemore.
This week’s Senior Spotlight shines on Eric Becker and Dennis Gisch.
Eric Becker is active in just about everything there is to do at Garrigan. You may know him as one of the captains of the Golden Bear football team. He’s also been to state in track, and his intramural basketball team won the school championship last year. Eric is also a four-year student council veteran, and he’s active in choir. We wish Eric all the best in the future.
Dennis Gisch is a fun-loving senior who is also extremely smart. You’ll find him in advanced classes like Chemistry III and Continuous and Discrete Mathematics. Dennis is a wide receiver in football, a state tournament sprinter on the track team, and a quiz bowl captain who has made two trips to nationals. Both Dennis and Eric will be off to college next year, and we wish them both the very best of luck.
On our Golden Bear calendar this week, there’s state marching band today at Dodger Stadium in Fort Dodge. Then tomorrow is the CYO volleyball tournament at LeMars Gehlen.
Monday the volleyball team has more action, as they travel to Humboldt. On Tuesday juniors will be taking the PSAT, and then Tuesday night there’s the North Central Conference cross-country meet at Whittemore.
Wednesday night the volleyball team plays at Hampton-Dumont. Also that night there’s freshman football at Algona High. Then next Friday the varsity football team travels to Rockwell City/Lytton.
Finally next Saturday there’s freshman volleyball at North Kossuth, and all day on Saturday we’ll have quiz bowl here at Garrigan.
That’s the “Bear Facts” for this week. Thanks for listening, and be sure to tune in here again next week, when we’ll be bringing you more news from Bishop Garrigan High School!
