THE BEAR FACTS

March 14, 2022

Good morning! I’m Meredith Tigges!

I’m Ava Eisenbarth!

I’m Ella Muller!

I’m Riley Rosenmeyer!

I’m Veronica Capesius!

I am Maryanne Capesius!

I’m Isabel Casey!

I’m Xander Darling!

I’m Mya Kemna!

And I’m Marguerite Fakler! Welcome to a special episode of the “Bear Facts”, where we’re saluting the Class of 2022 here at Bishop Garrigan High School.

Tomorrow will be graduation day for the Bishop Garrigan Class of 2022. Thirty-two Golden Bears will be marching across the stage to receive their diplomas as part of Garrigan’s 63rd graduating class. Meredith Tigges will be delivering the commencement address. She is one of four students with a 4.0 grade point average. The others are Ava Eisenbarth, Riley Rosenmeyer, and Veronica Capesius.

Although they are one of the smallest classes in Garrigan’s history, this year’s senior class has a lot of accomplishments. The activity in which they’ve been most successful is probably girls golf. A win later this month would mean that the Golden Bears will have gone all the way through high school as state champions.

Earlier this season the girls golf team won CYO, and this past Monday they won the Top of Iowa Conference championship. They scored 374, compared to a 393 from second place Garner Hayfield Ventura. Annie Burns was the individual medalist for the conference, while Mereith Illg, Ava Eisenbarth, and Riley Rosenmeyer also finished in the top ten. Congratulations, golfers, and good luck in regionals!

Another area where the seniors have excelled is dance. The Golden Bear danz squad has won both individual and team honors throughout the past four years, continuing a long tradition of success. Seniors Lillee Deike, Katelyn Cink, Riley Rosenmeyer, and Meredith Illg were among those selected for the All-Iowa dance team earlier this year, and they also helped lead the team to first at state with their pom routine.

The seniors will always remember that 2022 was the first year Garrigan won a state championship in basketball. Seniors Meredith Tigges, Emma Grandgenett, and Ella Muller all made important contributions to the championship team. We hope the Bears go on to win lots more state championships, but this year’s seniors will always remember they were there the first time around.

In addition to sports, the Class of ’22 has excelled in the fine arts. While they’ll remember doing speech and music competitions over video during COVID, when things were more like normal this year, they did well in both areas. Last week our band earned a Division I rating at large-group contest, and two seniors—Ava Eisenbarth and Marguerite Fakler—performed at all-state speech earlier this spring.

Seniors have also taken the lead both onstage and behind the scenes to produce plays like The Pirates of Penzance last fall and Acting Can Be Murder a couple months ago. They’ve also won conference and area awards for the visual art creations they have made. Seniors have also done well in quiz bowl, had leadership roles in FFA, and they’ve led a number of service projects through the campus ministries program.

An activity that just started while this year’s seniors were in high school is DECA. Garrigan’s DECA chapter began when we were freshmen, and it’s grown into a very successful group. This year three Garrigan students went to the national DECA competition in Atlanta, and one of them—senior Riley Rosenmeyer—brought home a first place medal. Congratulations!

Our final Senior Spotlight of the year shines on Olivia Arndorfer. Since she lives right by Spring Valley, it’s no surprise that one of Olivia’s favorite activities is golf. She’s the yearbook editor, she’s been on the stage crew for several plays over the years, and she also helps out with the Bear Care at Seton. Next fall Olivia will be majoring in education at Briar Cliff, and she wants to be an elementary teacher in the future. Good luck to Olivia and to everyone in the Bishop Garrigan Class or 2022!

There’s nothing official on the Golden Bear calendar today, but there will be lots of graduation receptions this afternoon and evening. Then tomorrow at 2pm the Class of ’22 will graduate. You can hear the ceremony here on KLGA.

Because of construction, classes will be over for all the high school students at Garrigan next week. There’s still lots of activities, though. Monday night the boys golf team will be hosting districts at Spring Valley.

Next Tuesday the 8th graders will have their celebration mass at St. Cecelia’s. Then on Wednesday there’s girls regional golf at Lake Mills.

Thursday and Friday there’s state track at Drake Stadium in Des Moines. The Bears have defending champions in two events, and we’re hoping for a good showing at state this year.

Baseball season starts on Friday night, with the Bears hosting Algona High. Finally next Saturday there will be a home baseball tournament featuring Garrigan, Webster City, and Storm Lake St. Mary’s.

That’s the “Bear Facts” for this week. Some of the younger Golden Bears will be back next week with one more show as they preview all the summer activities here at Bishop Garrigan High School.

Woo-hoo!