THE BEAR FACTS

JANUARY 11, 2025

Good morning! I’m Thadd Kollasch!

I’m Tate Foertsch!

And I’m Sacha Alesch! Welcome to the one thousand, two hundred, forty-ninth weekly episode of the “Bear Facts”, the show where each week we keep you up to date on all thee news from Bishop Garrigan High School.

Practices are well underway for large group speech. They’re preparing for district contest, which will be January 25 in Manson. This year fifteen students are involved in speech, and they’re participating in three different categories. Thadd Kollasch, Tate Foertsch, and Brady Galligan will be working together on a Radio Broadcasting entry; and Scott Bormann, Shiloh Trainer, and Madelyn Tigges are entered in Group Improvisation.

The biggest speech entry is in Readers’ Theatre, where Bishop Garrigan will be presenting a melodrama called “Wait ‘Til the Sun Shines, Nellie”. Sacha Alesch is the heroine, Aidan Deitering plays the hero, Tate Foertsch is the evil villain, and Thadd Kollasch is his bungling assistant. The show also features Molly Peterson, Ava Roethler, Shiloh Trainer, Aubrey Meyer, and Harper Nelson; plus Madelyn Tigges, Gabby Buscher, Kylie Capesius, and Alice Casey.

The same weekend as speech contest Algona’s All-Call Theatre will be presenting the junior version of Beauty and the Beast, and several Garrigan students are involved in the show. Isabella Waechter will play Belle, Matt Besch is Gaston, Griffin Geving plays Maurice, Amaury Thomas will be Lumiere, Spencer Doerning is Cogsworth, Kayden Graves is the baker, Cora Deardeuff and Kylie Capesius are girls of the town, and Alice Casey is in the chorus. The show will be Friday and Sunday, January 17 and 19.

Lots of younger Garrigan students are featured in Beauty and the Beast. They include Anaya Thomas, Abby Deardeuff, Rachel Kahle, Riley Doerning, Lilly Kollasch, Lucy Geving, Gabriela Salinas, Knox Nerem, Tatum Galligan, Ethan Murphy, Paisley Sullivan, Alfred Herren, Carter Kollasch, Kacy Steier, and Nora Miller; as well as Shaylin Steier, Andrew Murphy, Emma Kollasch, Kimber Kutschara, Regina Herren, Josie Deardeuff, Asher Foertsch, Emmet Geving, Axel Kutschara, Blake Casey, Molly Thilges, Jaxon Nerem, and Amaryllis Bode.

This weekend two Garrigan musicians are in Ft. Dodge for the North Central Iowa Bandmasters Association honor band. Senior Spencer Doerning will be playing the trumpet, and sophomore Corbin Darling will play the euphonium at the honor band. Congratulations, Spencer and Corbin!

For several years now the Izaak Walton League has sponsored a Bishop Garrigan trapshooting team. Sign-ups just closed, and the 2025 team will feature Sawyer Herrick, Noah Berte, Gibson Menke, Scott Bormann, Weston Rosenmeyer, Konner Kramer, Hailee Reutzel, Wyatt Rosenmeyer, and Nick Thul. Good luck, trapshooters!

Next month five Garrigan students will be taking a special service trip to Mississippi, where they’ll help out at the missions Garrigan sponsors. This year Hanna Merron, Alaina Bormann, Isabella Waechter, Spencer Doerning, and Isaac DeLange will be making the mission trip to Mississippi. They’ll be gone February 11 through 17, and Fr. Zach and Miss Rupert will accompany them on the trip.

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Thadd Kollasch. Here to tell you about him is Tate Foertsch.

Thaddeus Kollasch is one of our regular announcers here on the “Bear Facts”. You’ve almost certainly heard him saying “good morning” at the start of our show. Thadd is active in football, track, baseball, choir, band, speech, and DECA, and he says he also enjoys playing wiffleball. After high school Thadd would like to major in turfgrass management, and we wish him all the best in the future.

Thanks, Tate. On our Golden Bear calendar today there’s a swim meet today at Des Moines Hoover, a wrestling meet at Forest City, and honor band in Ft. Dodge. Then on Monday the third quarter begins.

Monday night the basketball teams play at West Bend—Mallard. Then on Tuesday they’re back home for a five—game match-up against Belmond—Klemme, featuring JJV through varsity. There’s also a wrestling meet in Okoboji on Tuesday.

We’ll have an all-school mass on Wednesday. There’s a school board meeting that afternoon, and Thursday night the basketball teams host Mason City Newman for another five-game match-up. There’s a pasta meal to raise money for after-prom at the games.

There’s wrestling in Clear Lake on Thursday, plus a swim meet in Ft. Dodge. Finally next Friday report cards come out for the first semester.

That’s the “Bear Facts” for another week. Thanks for listening, and be sure to catch our 1250th show next week, where we’ll have more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.