The Bear Facts
September 13, 2023


Good morning! I’m Thadd Kollasch!

I’m Drew Muller!

And I’m Ella Schaaf! Welcome once again to the “Bear Facts”, where we’re getting ready for Homecoming here at Bishop Garrigan High School.

Homecoming Week at Garrigan begins tomorrow. This year’s theme is “We Got the Beat”, and it celebrates music through the years. With the dress-up days, on Monday we’ll express our preference of “Country vs. Pop”. Tuesday is “70s Disco Fever Day”, and Wednesday is “Don’t Stop Believin’ 80s Day”. Thursday for the Battle of the Classes we’ll have “We Are the Champions Day”, and Friday’s black and gold day has the theme “We Will Rock You”.

The Homecoming Coronation will be Monday morning at 9:00 in the new gym. This year’s Homecoming king candidates are Justin Bauer, Nick Laubenthal, Logan Nemmers, and Sam Plathe. The queen candidates are Violet Bode, Abbie Capesius, Avery Lichter, and Ella Schaaf. Students voted for their favorite in religion classes, and the winners will reign over Homecoming week.
 

The coronation will be followed by an all-school pep rally honoring all the fall sports. Most of the other big events for Homecoming week happen on Friday. We’ll have the traditional Homecoming mass at 11:00 that day in the Garrigan chapel. After lunch there will be a new lip sync contest that replaces the Mr. Garrigan competition we’ve had the past few years. The Homecoming parade starts at 2pm, and the dance will follow the game on Friday night.

Part of Homecoming each year is a big battle between the classes. The main focus will be on Thursday, when different classes will compete in a wide range of games—ranging from kickball to trivia. The seniors will dress in black that day, the juniors will be in white, the sophomores will wear blue, and the freshmen will be decked out in yellow.

For the competition each class will also construct a banner for the Homecoming parade and a hoop that classes will run through at the pep rally There’s also a competitive collection for the food pantry, with different items worth different amounts of points, and students will also be raising money for the library as part of the competition. There will also be points for the lip sync contest and for how many people in each class are dressed in the themes for the different Homecoming days.

Homecoming is always a busy week for the fall sports teams. The cross-country team will be running in Emmetsburg on Monday. That’s basically a home meet for some of the runners, since they live over there. On Tuesday the volleyball team will have a big game against North Union, and Friday the football team hosts Northwood—Kensett.

On last week’s “Bear Facts” we saluted our football, volleyball, and cross-country teams. Garrigan also has two athletes who are part of the Algona swim team. Brooke Ludwig is now in her third year of varsity swimming, and this year freshman Cora Deardeuff is also part of the team. Good luck, swimmers!

The cheerleaders are a big part of keeping spirit up for our sports. At the core of this fall’s spirit squad are returning seniors Ava Hough and Ella Schaaf. The rest of the cheerleaders are younger. They include sophomores Reece Kemna, Addison Kuper, Aubrey Meyer, Ava Roethler, and Ava Snider; and freshmen Jaelyn Antoine, Stormi Larson, and Harper Nelson. Thanks to the cheerleaders!

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Sam Plathe. Here to tell you about him is Avery Lichter.

Sam scored a touchdown and drew a pass interference call in last week’s Golden Bear victory over West Bend—Mallard. He has one of the longest commutes among Garrigan students, since he drives down from Lone Rock each day. Before he moved north, Sam and his family lived in Ankeny. In addition to football Sam is in track, band, choir, speech, drama, quiz bowl, DECA, and the honor society. He’s having a great senior year, and we know he’ll do great in college after he graduates.

Thanks, Avery! On our Golden Bear calendar, this morning the cross-country team is over in Holstein for the CYO meet. Monday Homecoming week begins.

The coronation will be at 9am on Monday, followed by a pep rally. Monday night there’s cross-country at Emmetsburg, the JV football team hosts West Bend Mallard, and there’s JV volleyball at Lake Mills.

Tuesday is the first turn-in day for the Walk and Pray fundraiser. There’s a K – 8 mass Tuesday morning, but the high school has normal classes that day. Tuesday night there’s a swim meet at Perry, and the volleyball team plays at North Union.

Thursday is game day for homecoming week, with all the classes competing against each other. Friday at 11am we’ll have the traditional Homecoming liturgy. Mass will be in the Garrigan chapel, and the public is invited.

The lip sync contest will be at 12:30 Friday afternoon, with the parade following at 2pm on State Street in downtown Algona. Friday night there’s the Homecoming football game, with the Bears taking on Northwood—Kensett.

The Homecoming dance will follow the game. Then on Saturday there’s the CYO volleyball tournament at Sioux City Heelan. The swim team is in Ft. Dodge that day, and there’s a JV volleyball tournament at Algona High.

That’s the “Bear Facts” for this week. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to catch the show next week, when we’ll let you know all the Homecoming winners here at Bishop Garrigan High School.