Good morning! I'm Michaela Mescher!
And I'm Nettie McGuire! Welcome to a special edition of the "Bear Facts", where we're celebrating Homecoming Week here at Bishop Garrigan High School.
This year marks Garrigan's forty-fifth Homecoming, and we're celebrating by taking "A Five-Day Trip Around the World". This year's theme has an international flair, and the hallway and float decorations will take us from the South Seas to the Arctic and from old Europe to the exotic East. All four classes will be busy tomorrow afternoon putting up hallway decorations. The seniors will decorate the gym lobby, while the juniors have the main lobby. The sophomores will be in the science hallway, and the freshman get to decorate the English hall.
Then on Tuesday night we'll be building floats for the annual Homecoming parade. The seniors will build their float at Algona Marine and Sport, and the juniors will be at Ernie Williams. The sophomore float will be constructed at Reding's Gravel and Excavating, and the freshman float sight is Buscher Brothers Implement. The class competition also includes the powder puff football game on Sunday night and skits or other entertainment that will be performed at a special pep rally Thursday afternoon.
There's a couple of changes in Homecoming this year. First, in addition to girls playing powder puff football, this year we'll also have boys participating in a Homecoming volleyball tournament. The biggest change, though, is the coronation. The North Central Conference re-arranged its church night schedule, so that changes the coronation ceremony from the traditional Thursday to Wednesday night this year. The coronation will be in the gym Wednesday night at 7:30.
Ten seniors will be part of that coronation ceremony. Queen candidates include Melissa Vaske, Michaela Mescher, Ashley McGuire, Maria Erpelding, and Molly Black. On the boys' side, the king candidates are Scott Stence, Colby Reding, Aaron O'Kane, Josh Broesder, and Adam Arndorfer. Alison Brandenburg and Nicole reding will emcee this year's coronation ceremony, and for the second year in a row the Homecoming escorts will be Matt Vitzthum and Derek Tindall.
Most of the other Homecoming events will take place on Friday. We'll have our Homecoming mass at 10:45 that morning, followed by a special barbecue to end the annual calendar drive. The Homecoming parade will take place on State Street Friday afternoon at 4:00, with floats and bands, all the Golden Bear athletes, and students from Seton marching along. Then, after the game on Friday night, we'll be rocking until the wee hours at the traditional Homecoming dance.
Every year one of the biggest parts of Homecoming is the special dress days. After a lot of discussion, the student council decided to keep things pretty basic for this year's days. Monday we'll have Hawaiian Day, while Tuesday is Jersey Day. With the coronation moved to Wednesday, it's that day that we'll wear the traditional black and gold. Thursday is Nerd Day, and Friday we'll have the traditional Dress-Up Day.
The cross-country team will be kicking off Homecoming week a day early by competing today in one of their biggest meets of the season. They're over in Holstein this morning for the CYO cross-country meet. This is looking to be a great year for the cross-country Bears. The boys' team is rated in the top ten statewide, and the girls team has also been setting records. We're hoping for a good showing at CYO today and an awesome season all year long for the cross-country team.
Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on two of our Homecoming candidates, Melissa Vaske and Adam Arndorfer.
Adam Arndorfer comes to Garrigan from the Corwith area. He is one of the top players on the football and basketball teams, and he's also been active in track. Almost everyone at Garrigan remembers the scare we got two years ago, when Adam was life-flighted to Rochester and had to spend much of the spring of his sophomore year in the hospital. We're all glad he's fully recovered and back where he belongs here at Garrigan.
Melissa Vaske's two biggest activities are cheerleading and dance. She was part of the national champion Garrigan danz squad last spring, She has also lettered in speech, and she's active in publications. Away from school you might see Melissa working at Premier Pizza or the Good Samaritan Center. Both Adam and Melissa will be off to college next year, and we wish them all the best.
Thanks! On our Golden Bear calendar today, there's the CYO cross-country meet at Holstein. Also this morning the volleyball team is playing at Emmetsburg.
Tomorrow we'll put up hallway decorations for Homecoming. Monday there's freshman and sophomore football at West Bend and the volleyball team travels to Iowa Falls. Then Tuesday there's cross-country at Clear Lake while the rest of the school decorates floats.
Wednesday we'll have an early dismissal for staff development. That night is the big Homecoming coronation. Then Thursday the volleyball Bears host Ft. Dodge St. Edmond.
Friday morning we'll have Homecoming mass. At lunch we'll enjoy a barbecue as our reward from the calendar drive. The Homecoming parade is at 4:00 Friday, and that night the varsity football team hosts Manson Northwest Webster.
The Homecoming dance follows the game Friday night. then next Saturday the freshman volleyball team travels to North Kossuth, while the JV plays at Algona High.
That's the "Bear Facts" for Homecoming Week. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to tune in again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.
