THE BEAR FACTS

November 10, 2018

Good morning! I’m Jordan Hansen!

I’m Bryce Capesius!

And I’m John Meis! Thanks for joining us for the “Bear Facts”, your weekly radio show from Bishop Garrigan High School.

There are two big trophies in the lobby at Garrigan. One of those is for cheerleading. Last Saturday Garrigan’s football spirit squad was down at the Iowa State Fairgrounds for the 2018 state cheerleading championships, and the bears ended up in first place in the 1-A cheer dance division. While the Bears’ presentation wasn’t perfect, the judges recognized that it was clearly better than the competition.

Seniors Emma Thul, Madelyn Cink, Laurel Degen, and Layah DeLange led the competition cheer squad at state. Others competing included Bailey Kollasch, Jordan Hansen, Carolyn Hough, Halle Menke, Julia Berte, Grace DeLange, Cora Ricke, Lillee Deike, Abbi Heying, and Meredith Illg. Congratulations on a state championship to Coaches Erin Miller and Jake Rosenmeyer and all the cheerleaders!

The other big trophy is for the football team. The Bears have a huge collection of football playoff trophies, and this year’s team added to it by advancing to the “elite eight” in the state quarterfinals. Last week’s game against Edgewood—Colesburg didn’t go the way the Bears wanted, and they ended up losing 6 – 0. The Vikings scored less than a third as many points against Garrigan as any other team they’d played all season, though, and the Bears had far more offensive yards than their opponents. Unfortunately Garrigan also turned the ball over at some key times, and the result was a loss that ended their season.

While we’re sad it’s over, this really was an outstanding football season for the Bears. They finished their fourth straight undefeated regular season, and they combined with their friends across town to bring 19 wins to the town of Algona. Senior Brad Capesius broke the career touchdowns record, while Aidan Koob tied a 33-year-old record for most quarterback sacks in a season. The team worked together to give Coach Marty Wadle his 200th career win. Congratulations to the Bears on continuing the strong football tradition here at Garrigan.

Last weekend was also the state solo dance championships, and three Garrigan dancers were among the top ten in Class 1-A dance. Sophomore Cora Ricke finished in second place statewide, freshman Lillee Deike was sixth, and senior Laurel Degen finished in eighth place at state. Congratulations to all these outstanding dancers!

Tonight and tomorrow the BGHS drama and music departments will be presenting All Shook Up, this year’s fall musical. The play first appeared on Broadway in 2004. It combines the plot of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night with music made famous by Elvis Presley. Garrigan’s production features seniors Sam Vaske, Emma Thul, Aidan Koob, Bryce Capesius, Megan Bronk, Eric Thul, Gabe Trainer, Madison Illg, Logan Heying, Ashlyn Harrington, and Layah DeLange. Featured juniors include Jordan Hansen and Amanda Miller. The entire choir will also appear in the musical.

The stage and tech crew are also important to the show. Megan Besch, Sami Darling, Cacy Steinman, Olivia Kajewski, Andrea Pacheco, Olivia Morey, Katelyn Cink, Ava Eisenbarth, Emma Grandgenett, and Riley Rosenmeyer are helping with the stage; while the tech crew includes Emma Fogarty, Mackenzie Meister, Maddie Meister, Kelly Baade, Emily Lappe, Ella Nelson, Lillee Deike, and Joey Schumacher. Kaylyn Meyers will also be helping out playing guitar as part of the band. You can see All Shook Up tonight at 7pm or tomorrow at 3pm in Friedmann Auditorium. Admission is just $5.

Today is another big day for the Golden Bear quiz bowl team. Last week two Garrigan teams finished in 5th and 7th place out of 18 teams competing at the Algona Invitational tournament. Today the Bears are hosting the Top of Iowa Conference quiz bowl tournament. Bishop Garrigan is defending their conference title in quiz bowl, and we wish them good luck in today’s tournament.

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Megan Besch. Megan Besch is a Whittemore native who was one of our Homecoming queen candidates earlier this semester. Throughout high school Megan has been active in band, and she also keeps busy with both basketball and football cheerleading, and FFA. In the summer you may see her working at the Whittemore swimming pool. Megan will be off to college next year, and we wish her the best of luck in the future.

On our Golden Bear calendar, today Garrigan is hosting the Top of Iowa Conference quiz bowl tournament. Then tonight the curtain goes up on the fall musical, All Shook Up.

The final performance of the musical is tomorrow at 3pm. Monday boys basketball practice begins, and on Tuesday there’s a field trip for advanced art students.

Tuesday night the girls basketball team will host a jamboree. We’ll have mass on Wednesday, and the freshmen have a special luncheon that day. Finally next Thursday the All-State Music Festival starts in Ames.

That’s the “Bear Facts” for another week. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to tune in again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.