The Bear Facts

January 13, 2023

Good morning! I’m Violet Bode!

I’m Ella Schaaf!

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

After a very mild December, we had our first real taste of winter weather this past week. That gives us a chance to review the school procedures when there’s school cancellations. In general Garrigan and Seton follow the call of the Algona Community Schools for late starts and no school days. If there is a late start, morning activities and practices are cancelled that day.

There’s also no morning activities on no school days. Decisions on evening activities are generally announced later in the day. If there is an early dismissal, for busing reasons Garrigan and Seton will dismiss 15 minutes earlier than the announced time for the Algona Community Schools, and all after-school activities will be cancelled.

Several Garrigan students have been busy getting ready for the state vocal jazz contest, which is coming up on February 5. Girls in vocal jazz include Zoe Montag, Ava Hough, Shiloh Trainer, Cora Deardueff, Lauren Swift, Madelyn Bronk, Violet Bode, and Sasha Alesch. The vocal jazz boys are Benjamin Trainer, Tate Foertsch, Gabe Swift, Brendan Plathe, Matt Besch, Logan Nemmers, Kyle Bormann, Sam Plathe, and Amaury Thomas. Good luck, jazz singers!

The Golden Bear girls basketball team remains at the top of the Top of Iowa Conference, and they’re also one of the top-rated teams in class 1-A. Students in all four classes have been contributing to the girls’ success—including senior veterans Abbie Capesius and Reagan Murphy, junior Zoe Montag, sophomores Emmi Bartolo, Sacha Alesch, and Alyssa Haugland, and freshman Gracelyn Eastman. Good luck to the Bears throughout the rest of the season.

It’s been a good year for the Garrigan students who are wrestling for the Algona Bulldogs. Last week Ethan Marso finished fourth in a varsity meet. Fellow wrestlers Brody Ludwig, Caden Roethler, Andrew Lichter, Wyatt Rosenmeyer, and Carter McGregor have also been contributing at both the varsity and JV levels. Good luck to them in the rest of the regular season and at districts.

This is a busy time of year for the state champion Golden Bear danz squad. They will be holding a dance clinic for younger girls on Friday, January 26. The clinic is after school that day, and participants will perform at halftime of the boys game vs. North Union that night. The young dancers will also perform at the danz squad’s spring show, which is Sunday, February 4.

This weekend the area Knights of Columbus will hold the first round of their annual free throw contest. Registration and warm-ups start at 1:30 tomorrow afternoon in the Garrigan gym. Boys and girls from age 9 to 14 are welcome to participate, and there is no fee to enter. The top participants will advance to the second round, which will be February 11.

The second semester at Bishop Garrigan starts next Monday. In addition to starting some new classes, Fr. Zach has designed some changes to our religious schedule as well. Starting this semester we will be having Eucharistic adoration on Thursdays rather than Fridays. There will also be opportunities for confession on Thursdays at school. Finally, Fr. Zach is creating opportunities for students who missed out on sacraments earlier in their lives.

Part of being a Catholic school is that we celebrate mass at Garrigan almost every week. This coming week will be a little different. Those of us in the high school will be having our mass on Tuesday over at St. Joseph Church in Wesley. This is one of a series of travelling masses we’ve done, where we visit all the area Catholic churches.

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Alaina Casey. Here to tell you about her is Brendan Plathe.

Alaina Casey comes off the bench to help out in almost every Golden Bear girls basketball game. She’s also been in volleyball all through school. Music is also big for Alaina. She’s part of the Garrigan band and choir. Like many seniors, Alaina already has some college credits on her record, and we wish her all the best when she goes off to college next year.

Thanks, Brendan. On our Golden Bear calendar, there are make-up basketball games today that were postponed by the snow day on Tuesday. The Bears will be at Belmond, with the JV starting at 11am and the varsity beginning at 1:15pm.

There’s also a swim meet at Ft. Dodge this morning, and there’s wrestling at Creston. Then tomorrow afternoon is the first round of the K.C. free throw contest.

Monday is the first day of the second semester. There’s JV wrestling at Emmetsburg on Monday, and the JJV boys basketball team will have a home game against Lake Mills.

Tuesday mass we’ll have mass in Wesley. There’s a basketball quad Tuesday night, with the Bears travelling to Lake Mills. There’s also wrestling at Rockford on Tuesday.

Wednesday there’s CYO honor band at Bishop Heelan in Sioux City. Thursday there’s a basketball quad, with the Bears hosting West Bend Mallard. The JJV boys will also take on Belmond—Klemme Thursday night.

There’s more basketball on Friday, with the Bears hosting Eagle Grove. There’s JV wrestling at Clear Lake Friday night. Then next Saturday the speech team travels to Northwestern College in Sioux Center for district large-group contest.

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