THE BEAR FACTS
February 16, 2019

Good morning! I’m Reese Rosenmeyer!

I’m Jordan Hansen!

And I’m Amanda Miller! Thanks for tuning in again to the “Bear Facts”, the radio show where each week we keep you in touch with everything that’s happening at Bishop Garrigan High School.

We’ve had a lot of snow days this winter, and a lot of late starts as well. Fortunately, when the calendar was approved for the school year, it included a lot of pre-scheduled extra time at the end of the year. While the third quarter will definitely be shorter than the other divisions of the year, we’ve still got enough minutes built into the calendar that we can still miss two more days before we have to add on additional make-up time.

The storms this past week did cause some adjustments to our schedule. Most importantly, parent—teacher conferences had to be cancelled. Any parents who have concerns about their students are encouraged to contact the teachers directly to discuss them. Also the third and fourth grade concert is postponed from this past week to next Wednesday, February 20.

The second round girls regional basketball game also had to be postponed. Garrigan ended up hosting Mason City Newman on Wednesday night. The Bears easily beat the Newman Knights by a score of 58 to 35. That advanced them to the regional semi-finals, which were held last night at Clarksville. We had to record this week’s show before that game was played, but we’re hoping the girls will be in the regional finals next Monday at West Union.

After a bye in the first round, the Golden Bear boys started basketball playoffs on Thursday, when they took on North Union. Garrigan will also be hosting the district semi-finals next Tuesday, and the district championship will be next Thursday at Garner. If they make it past there, the Bears would play next Saturday night for the right to go to state.

JV basketball is over for the year, but both the girls and boys teams had good seasons. The boys JV team was led by 3-point specialists Andrew Arndorfer, Cameron Baade, and Kurt Condoleon. Others with lots of JV playing time were Marcus Plathe, Kyle Schaaf, Kyphus Goche, Joseph Meis, and Isaiah Plathe. Other younger players backing up the Bears are Kellen Murphy, Lazarus Elbert, Jacpb Leerar, Joey Schumacher, Hollis Bode, and Grant Haugland.

The girls also had good depth on the lower-level teams. Those players include Gracie Elsbecker, Kelly Baade, Reese Rosenmeyer, Bailey Meister, Grace Rosenmeyer, Tara Kron, Kiana Book, and Anna Berke. The freshmen who suited up this year were Emma Grandgenett, Ella Muller, Meredith Tigges, Isabel Casey, and Veronica Capesius; plus Mya Kemna, Ava Eisenbarth, Annie Burns, MaryAnn Capesius, and Allison Kramer. Congratulations to all the lower-level basketball players!

Individual speech season is here. Coaches Ashley Meyer and David Burrow have been busy preparing students for district contest, which we’ll be hosting at Garrigan next Saturday. This year we have seventeen entries on the schedule. Sam Vaske is entered in both Storytelling and Musical Theatre, while Gabe Trainer is preparing selections in Acting and Prose.

Mya Kemna, Abbi Heying, and Jordan Hansen are all preparing pieces in the category of Literary Program. Marguerite Fakler and Riley Rosenmeyer are entered in Storytelling, and Meredith Illg and Ava Eisenbarth will be competing in Poetry. Logan Heying and Noah Bronk are entered in Radio News Announcing, and Joey Trainer and Ashlyn Harrington are presenting Prose selections. Bryce Capesius is preparing an Expository Address, and Emma Thul will be competing in Musical Theatre. Best wishes, speech!

Garrigan has been a perennial host for district speech contest since before we were born. Hosting contest is a lot of work, and this year speech coach Jake Rosenmeyer has taken over for long-time contest manager Mary McCall. It takes a lot of volunteers to make everything run smoothly. If you’re interested in helping out next weekend, you can contact Jake Rosenmeyer, David Burrow, or Ashley Meyer at Garrigan to volunteer.

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Dylan Berte. Here to tell you about him is Emma Fogarty.

Dylan Berte is one of many students who comes to Garrigan from the Bancroft area. His biggest activity is probably trap-shooting, and he’ll begin his season shooting at targets as soon as the snow finally clears away. Dylan has also been in FFA, and this semester he enjoys an electrical class he’s taking. We wish Dylan all the best as he continues his education after high school.

Thanks, Emma. On our Golden Bear calendar this week, there’s a math team competition in Waverly. Then Monday there’s no school—and it’s not even a snow day. The girls basketball regional championship will be Monday night at West Union.

Tuesday Garrigan will host the boys district semi-finals. We’ll have mass on Wednesday, and that night will be the re-scheduled third and fourth grade concert.

The boys district championship will be Thursday night at Garner. Then Friday night the danz squad will have their spring show.

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