Good morning! I'm Teresa McGuire!
And I'm Mike McAlpine! Welcome once again to the "Bear
Facts", KLGA's weekly update from Bishop Garrigan High
School.
There's another big competition today at Garrigan. For the first time, BGHS is hosting a qualifying event for the Great Plains Math League. Math students from around the area will be busting their brains to solve tough problems as the work to qualify for state. Daryl Kohlhaas coaches the Golden Bear math team, which includes seniors Bob Brandenburg, Cathy Hellman, Chris Kohlhaas, and Rebecca McGuire, as well as juniors Christoph Gebele, Jeff Hellman, Steven Kellner, Rosie Kirsch, and David Murphy. The younger math team members are sophomores Josh Broesder, Eric Cassman, and John Kohlhaas, and freshmen Chris Buscher, Matt Courtney, Samantha Kirsch, and Anthony McGuire. Good luck to the math team!
Basketball season has begun, and so far the Golden Bears have gotten of to a good start. This past week both the boys and girls teams had big wins over both Clarion and Iowa Falls. David Wieland coaches the varsity girls, and this year his team includes a large group of returning veterans. The core group of seniors features Ashley Arndorfer, Jenna Becker, Mindy Buscher, Shelley DeVries, Alison Dornbier, and Teresa McGuire. There are also four juniors on the varsity squad: Molly Bartolo, Nellie Fowler, Janel Richter, and exchange student Gudrun Emiliudottir. Amanda Elbert and Tiffany Schumacher are the girls' managers, Rose Mayer keeps stats, and Lindsay Schiltz is the video operator for the girls basketball team.
Experience is not an asset for the boys basketball team. All of last year's starters have graduated, and Coach John Bartolo has only three seniors on this year's squad. They are Joe Bartolo, Jeff Vaske, and Mark Meister. Juniors like Justin Fickbohm, Jeff Hellman, Alex Vaske, and Joe Hellman also add some varsity experience. Rounding out the boys team are sophomores Adam Arndorfer, Aaron O'Kane, Brent Shillington, and Scott Stence. The boys' managers are Mike McAlpine, Jon Hanig, Jason Lallier, and Chris Buscher. Good luck to both our varsity teams!
While varsity is what you hear about, it's the lower level teams where most players gain experience. Nine younger girls are playing JV basketball this year. They include sophomores Lindsay Becker, Sarah Mayer, Nettie McGuire, and Michaela Mescher, as well as freshmen Miranda Boekelman, Emily DeWaard, Debbie Kohlhaas, Nicole Reding, and Emily Salz. John Byrkeland and Joe Elbert are the JV girls coaches.
Many of the JV boys players also suit varsity. Those who don't are sophomores Ben Geelan, John Kohlhaas, and Grant Smith. There is also a boys "C-Team", which includes sophomores Tim Arndorfer and Jesse Bode, as well as a large group of freshmen. The freshmen in basketball are Matt Courtney, Matt Vitzthum, Jeremiah Peters, Mark Parrish, Kyle Frideres, Sean Kohlhaas, Derek Tindall, Chris Reinhart, and Cole Vautier. Mike Stence, Roger Froehlich, and Dave Schnurr coach the lower-level boys basketball teams.
If it's basketball season, it's also time for large-group speech, and Garrigan students started rehearsals this past week for eleven different speech events. Mary McCall is in charge of speech at Garrigan. She and assistant David Burrow are working with a group of three freshmen, nine sophomores, seventeen juniors, and seven seniors. This year Garrigan is entered in the categories of One-Act Play, Readers Theatre, Choral Reading, Ensemble Acting, and Group Improvisation. We'll tell you more about all the speech selections on future "Bear Facts" shows.
Regular listeners to the "Bear Facts" may have noticed improved sound quality on the shows we have aired since Thanksgiving. That's because of new recording equipment that replaced our obsolete tape deck and sound mixer. The new studio system was provided by DARTS, the booster group for drama, art, and speech, and we certainly thank them for helping us to continue to produce high-quality program each week.
Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Tyler Erpelding. Here to tell you about him is
Bridget Buscherfeld.
Tyler Erpelding is an Algona native who has grown up a lot in his high school years. He is probably best known for his accomplishments on the golf
course, where he has played varsity ever since he was a freshman. Tyler also enjoys
intramural
basketball, and he likes rooting for the Bears in other sports. He'll be off to college next fall, and we wish Tyler the very best of luck.
Thanks, Bridget! On our Golden Bear calendar this week, there's the Great Plains Math League competition this morning at Garrigan. Tonight the varsity basketball team will be hosting Garner, and the boys team will be serving a grilled burger supper during the games.
Tomorrow is the third Sunday of Advent. We'll have our weekly Advent prayer service Monday during homeroom. Then on Tuesday the basketball teams travel to Clear Lake.
Next Friday we'll have a special prayer service at 10:50am. That afternoon we'll dismiss early for Christmas vacation, and then that night there's the annual holiday basketball game with Algona High. This year the JV games will be at Garrigan, while the varsity travels across town.
That's the "Bear Facts" for this week. We'll be back next Saturday for one last broadcast before the holidays. Until then, thanks for joining us to hear all the latest news from Bishop Garrigan High School.
