The Bear Facts
February 14, 2026

Good morning! I’m Tate Foertsch!

I’m Kayden Graves!

And I’m Emmi Bartolo! Happy Valentine’s Day from the “Bear Facts” and all of us at Bishop Garrigan High School.

Basketball playoffs are underway, and both the Golden Bear girls and boys have the top seed in their divisions. They’ll be playing at home all the way until the final games before state. The boys are in district 3, which includes teams from northeast Iowa that we know better from football. They’ll open Monday night against the winner of Northwood—Kensett and Rockford. Later on they could be facing North Butler, St. Ansgar, Riceville, or Janesville; and likely substate opponents are Wapsie Valley and South Winneshiek.

The girls are in region 2, which covers a wide span of central Iowa. Their first game will be Tuesday. While the region includes teams as far away as Ankeny and North Tama, the Bears’ path to state will likely go through St. Edmond and then either Lake Mills or Newman Catholic. Good luck in playoffs, Golden Bear basketball!

Last Saturday a group of Garrigan students were over in Cherokee for the state large group speech contest. Two groups of Bears earned Division I or “excellent” ratings. They include the readers’ theatre “Marlin Mississippi Radio” with Alice Casey, Amaury Thomas, Aubrey Meyer, Ava Roethler, Gabe Swift, Madelyn Tigges, and Sacha Alesch; and the acting ensemble “The Committee Meeting” featuring Aubrey Meyer, Cora Deardeuff, Harper Nelson, Kylie Capesius, and Lucy Eisenbarth. Renetta Seiler and Maureen Meis are the large group speech coaches. Congratulations!

Rehearsals are underway for individual speech. The Bears will have ten entries at the district contest in Newell. Amaury Thomas, Sacha Alesch, and Eva Kohlhaas will all be competing in Solo Musical Theatre; and Alice Casey, Eva Kohlhaas, and Lucy Eisenbarth are all entered in Storytelling. Tate Foertsch will have a Radio News Announcing entry, Lucy Eisenbarth is in Improvisation, and Alice Casey and Sacha Alesch are both entered in Prose. David Burrow is in charge of individual speech at Bishop Garrigan.

This weekend twenty-two Garrigan students will head down to Des Moines for the state DECA competition. DECA is an organization for future businesspeople. Lucy Eisenbarth, Gabe Swift, Kayden Graves, Aiden Lickter, Aidan Deitering, Henry Bode, Gabby Buscher, Sheila Reding, and Kylie Capesius all won awards at the district DECA contest last fall, and they’re hoping to do well at state.

Other students entered in DECA are Harper Nelson, Hailee Reutzel, Bryden Morse, Rylee Garman, Gabbie Penton, Caiden Buckner, Abby Deardeuff, Emma Kollasch, Hope Rooney, Eli Casey, Gage Meyer, Jaelyn Antoine, and Cora Deardeuff. Categories for competition include Apparels and Accessories Marketing, Hotel and Lodging, Human Resource Management, Marketing and Communications, Principles of Entrepreneurship, Sports and Entertainment, and Hospitality. Good luck at state to Coach Alex Schwing and everyone in DECA!

The Bishop Garrigan drama department is preparing for their spring show, Robin Hood and His Merry Men. Amaury Thomas will start in the title role. Other key roles will be played by Shiloh Trainer, Sacha Alesch, Cora Deardeuff, Kayden Graves, Matt Besch, Leo Snyder, Tate Foertsch, Addison Laubenthal, and Sawyer Herrick. The cast also features Henry Bode, Alice Casey, Rachel Kahle, Delaney Fessler—Arndorfer, and Lucy Eisenbarth; as well as Abby Deardeuff, Anaya Thomas, Riley Doerning, Madelyn Tigges, and Jerad Graves. Dates for the show are April 17 and 19.

The Golden Bear swim team wrapped up their season last weekend at the district meet in Mason City. Junior Matt Besch has been leading the team all year. He was pleased that everyone dropped their times through the year, and the team managed to beat Ft. Dodge at districts. The Golden Bear swim team also includes Aidan Deitering, Sawyer Herrick, Dalton Klenz, Eli Casey, Aidan Lichter, and Henry Bode, as well as Algona High students Colin Roberts and Owen Doocy. Congratulations on a good season, swimmers!

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Konner Kramer. Here to tell you about him is Mike Joyce.

Konner Kramer is part of the E.C.E. or extended career experience program at Garrigan, which allows him to spend a large part of his day working at Kemna’s. He’s on the Golden Bear trapshooting team, and he enjoys spending his free time hanging out with friends. Next year he plans to got to Iowa Lakes to prepare for a career as a diesel technician. We wish Konner all the best in the future.

On our Golden Bear there’s district wrestling today. The quiz bowl team is also back in action with a meet in Ankeny. Tomorrow and Monday are state DECA in Des Moines.

There’s no school Monday due to a teacher inservice. Monday night the boys host district basketball, and Tuesday the girls host their first regional game. State wrestling will be next Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

There’s more basketball playoffs Thursday and Friday. Also on Friday the jazz choir will be part of the Shake the Lake vocal jazz festival in Emmetsburg.
 

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