THE BEAR FACTS
March 14, 2026


Good morning! I’m Graclyn Eastman!

I’m Harper Nelson!

And I’m Bree Ludwig! You’re listening to the “Bear Facts”, the weekly radio show from Bishop Garrigan High School.

It’s rare that a school has one basketball team go to state. It’s even rarer when two teams go in the same year. The last time both the Golden Bear girls and boys qualified for state was in 2020, right before the COVID pandemic shut down everything. This year the girls played three games at state. The won their opener against Kee and the state semifinals versus Dunkerton. Unfortunately they couldn’t overcome a 22-point deficit in the championship game, where they lost to Newell—Fonda 64 – 56. That’s still one of the best showings in school history, and it continues a seven-year streak of appearances at state by the Golden Bear girls.

Three Golden Bears received all-state honors from the print sportswriters of Iowa. Graclyn Eastman made first team all state, while Emmi Bartolo and Sacha Alesch were named to the second team. Sacha was also honored by the Iowa Bankers’ Association with their student athlete achievement award. She’s the second Golden Bear to receive that award this year, since Tate Foertsch won the honor in football last fall.



The boys basketball team also qualified for state. They played Marquette Catholic from Bellevue Tuesday night. The Bears tied things up in the fourth quarter, but unfortunately when the buzzer sounded they were down 58 – 55. Michael Joyce was the Bears’ top scorer at state, with 22 points. Tate Foertsch led in assists, and Carter Schwab and Amaury Thomas were the top rebounders at state. While we’d have liked to see them advance, we’re still proud the Bears made it to state. Congratulations, Golden Bear boys!

With basketball over, spring activities have begun. One of those activities is trapshooting, where the Bishop Garrigan team is sponsored by the Izaak Walton League. The Golden Bear team includes seniors Hailee Reutzel, Konner Kramer, Noah Berte, Kollyn Wiemers, and Gibson Menke; and juniors Sawyer Herrick and Weston Rosenmeyer. Good luck all season long to the trapshooters.

This morning two Garrigan students are heading over to Denison to compete at the state individual speech contest. Eva Kohlhaas and Alice Casey are both entered in the Storytelling category, and both earned Division I ratings at the district contest two weeks ago. Alice will be telling the politically correct version of “Chicken Little”, and Eva will tell a modern version of “Little Red Riding Hood”. Best wishes, speech!

Next Wednesday a group of 76 students and adults will be leaving for Orlando on the BGHS music trip. They’ll be leaving at 3:30am to head up to the Minneapolis Airport, and then they’ll fly down to Florida. They’ll spend time at Disney Springs and Planet Hollywood, Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, and the Kennedy Space Center. They’ll also attend Sunday mass at the Basilica of Our Lady, Queen of the Universe.



While at Universal, the group will perform on the CityWalk Stage. They’ll also participate in a special sound design workshop, where they’ll experience what it’s like to be working movie musicians providing the score for a motion picture. They’ll also learn about the art of foley, where sound effects are added to enhance the flow of a movie. The group will be in Orlando through next Sunday. They’ll then fly back to Minneapolis and be back in school on Monday.

Our senior spotlight this week shines on Gabe Swift. Here to tell you about him is Sheila Reding.

Gabe Swift comes to Garrigan from Emmetsburg. His biggest activity is probably music. He’s part of the award-winning jazz choir, he performed a solo at pops concert, he was a drum major for the band, and he’s also helped direct the band in Mrs. Wiemers’ absence. Gabe is also active in speech and drama, and he’s one of the biggest fans you’ll see at any Golden Bear sports event. After graduating he’ll be helping out at Swift Air, and we wish Gabe all the best in the future.

Thanks, Sheila. On our Golden Bear calendar this week, there’s state individual speech contest today in Denison. Then tomorrow at 10am there’s confirmation mass at St. Cecelia’s.

We’ll have parish busing at Garrigan and Seton all next week. We are in session, but the Algona Community Schools have spring break. The 4th quarter begins at Garrigan on Monday.

Monday and Tuesday the seniors will have their retreat at Okoboji. Tuesday night there’s a preschool concert. Then at 3:30 Wednesday morning the band and choir will leave for their music trip.

There will be a student mass Wednesday morning. Thursday we’ll be setting up decorations for Gala, and Friday report cards go out to parents and students.

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.