“The Bear Facts”
MAY 15, 1999
Good morning! I’m Brandon Donahe!
And I’m Louie Bode! Welcome to another episode of the “Bear Facts,” the weekly radio show from Bishop Garrigan High School.
This week’s show mostly amounts to congratulating a whole bunch of people at Garrigan. We’ll start with the girls’ track team. They’ve been having an awesome season. Last week at districts they qualified six different events for the state track meet—the most state qualifiers in recent memory. Ashley Arndorfer, Teresa McGuire, Angie Kohlhaas, and Heather Stence won the 4 by 800-meter relay at districts, and Heather also finished first in the 800-meter run. Teresa McGuire was runner-up in the mile run, and Angie Froehlich was runner-up in the high jump. The sprint medley qualified with an outstanding time. They include Deanna Kohlhaas, Mandy Roethler, Liz DeWaard, and Heather Stence. Also qualifying by time was Sara Seeley in the 400-meter hurdles. Congratulations to all these girls, and good luck at state!
The boys’ track team also has lots of state qualifiers. With one week left, it’s all but certain that the Bears will go to state in at least six different events. Adam Sundall has the top time in the state in both the one-mile and two-mile races, and his time is second best in the 800-meter run. Fellow senior Doug Besch is also likely to qualify in both the one-mile and two-mile. The Bears’ medley relay also has the state’s top time. In addition to Doug and Adam, Dean Boever, Nick Even, Phil Kramer, and Ben Richter have all run the medley. Other likely state qualifiers are the 4 by 200 relay with Dean Boever, Nick Even, Dennis Gisch, and John Mosbach; and the 4 by 100 with Dean, Dennis, John, and Hank Greer. Congratulations, boys!
The boys’ golf team has also been doing an outstanding job all season long. Last week they just missed taking the North Central Conference championship. Seniors Matt Kunkel and Michael Bernhard and junior P.J. Vaske have all been vying for top spot among the Golden Bear golfers. Other low scores on the team include senior Anthony Gervais, junior Jesse Walker, sophomore Russ Vaske, and freshman Tyler Erpelding. Other senior golfers include Jason Kohlhaas, Jake Hansen, and Andrew Brunsen; and juniors Josh Meyer and Tony Meyer have also been playing hard all spring.
A lot of younger students have been tearing up the greens all season, too. They include sophomores Jason Besch, Josh Richter, and John Steier. Among the freshmen on the golf team are Jason Walker, Nolan Thilges, Scot Miller, Ben Meyer, and Andy Meyer. Golfing with them are fellow freshmen Nick Lane, Steve Goede, Adam Cink, and Charles Bormann. Congratulations to all these golfers!
The girls’ golf team has also been working hard all season. Seniors Melanie McGuire and Molly Nelson have been leading the team to victory this year. Another top golfer is junior Angie Froehlich—who keeps busy at two different spring sports, both golf and track. Also on the golf team are juniors Melissa Blocker and Katie Patterson, sophomores Stephanie Berte and Lynn Kohlhaas, and freshmen Jennifer Faber, Stephanie Hilbert, and Ashley Thompson. Congratulations on a good season to the girls’ golf team!
Some other big awards were passed out last week by the Golden Bear speech team. At the speech banquet last Wednesday more than forty students received certificates for their Division I and II ratings at contest. Sophomore Marian Studer also received a special citation for her outstanding performance at the All-State Speech Festival. Each year two seniors are honored for their work in speech. This year Rachel Studer received the award for Excellence in Speech, while Julie Henkelvig was honored with the Career Achievement Award. Congratulations to them!
Also this week the Golden Bear quiz bowl team announced their awards for the 1998-99 season. Abby Rahm was named the team’s most valuable player, based on her success over the past four years. Abby received a quiz bowl letter, as did fellow seniors Mike Reel, Rachel Studer, and Adam Foertsch. Other quiz bowl letterwinners include junior Jennifer Reinhart, sophomores Brooke Buscherfeld, Angie Kohlhaas, Ellie Reising, and Lynn Kohlhaas; and freshmen Rebecca McGuire and Bob Brandenburg. Congratulations to all these award-winners!
There’s one activity we don’t mention a lot where two Garrigan girls have had outstanding success. That’s HOSA, the Health Occupations Student Association. At the state HOSA competition last month seniors Alicia Arndorfer and Tracey Fickbohm took first place in the emergency medical technician competition. This summer, as the state’s top young EMTs, they’ll be off to Nashville for the national health occupations competition. Congratulations, and good luck to both Alicia and Tracey!
At the Ascension mass last Thursday the new student council presidents passed out gifts to the departing faculty members. Six different Garrigan teachers will be leaving this year. Biology teacher Kara Christianson will be moving to Minnesota, and religion teacher Shannon Duffy will be running a youth program at Okiboji. English teacher Sue Ney will be working at North Kossuth next year, and Spanish teacher Muriel Singer will be teaching at Twin River Valley. Algebra teacher Eileen Kadow is taking a position at Iowa Lakes Community College, and religion teacher Phyllis Even will be teaching science at Seton Middle School next year. We thank all these teachers for their work at Garrigan, and we wish them the best in the future.
And now, here with the Senior Spotlight is John Mosbach.
The last two seniors in our Senior Spotlight are Lisa Kollasch and Sarah Hall. Lisa is an Algona native whose number one activity is band. She has the marching band’s field commander fort he past two years. Lisa is also active in publications, and last summer she went to Europe with the Spanish club. She’ll be studying at Iowa State next fall, and we wish her all the best.
As a volleyball player, Sarah Hall made Who’s Who Among America’s Athletes. Over the years she has also been active in basketball. Sarah is an honor student who enjoys classes like Accounting and Advanced Biology. She’ll be off to college next year. We wish good luck to Sarah, and to the sixty-one other members of the BGHS Class of 1999!
On our Golden Bear calendar, this afternoon many of the seniors have their graduation receptions. Then tomorrow at 2pm they’ll be receiving their diplomas. You can hear the commencement ceremonies live here on KLGA.
Monday there’s girls’ district golf. Also that night the boys’ track team runs at Algona High. After that the calendar’s pretty empty until Friday, when girls’ state track begins. Also on Friday there’s boys’ golf regionals and the boys’ track team runs in the conference meet at Iowa Falls.
Finally this week, we have two more people to congratulate. They’re our fellow “Bear Facts” announcers, Jessica Richter and Abby Rahm. Those two seniors were honored last week with a special activity letter in broadcasting, in recognition of their work on this program over the years. Congratulations, Jessica and Abby!
And we'd like to offer a special prayer for Garrigan janitor Dick Krapp. Dick was hospitalized this past week with a blood vessel blockage. We're thinking of you, Dick, and we hope to see you back here soon!
That’s the “Bear Facts” for another week. Thanks for listening, and be sure to tune in again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.
