The Bear Facts
May 16, 2026

Good morning! I’m Aidan Deitering!

I’m Graclyn Eastman!

I’m Lucy Eisenbarth!

Welcome to our final “Bear Facts” episode for the school year, where we’ll be previewing the summer here at Bishop Garrigan High School.

This past week, on our last day before semester tests, the school got a call from an outside person who threatened to go on a shooting spree. The school immediately went on lockdown, and law enforcement patrolled the entrances to the building. It was really a pretty boring afternoon, since we just had do stay in whatever classroom we were in 4th period. Fortunately nothing materialized from the threat, and the police issued an “all clear” shortly before dismissal time.

Bishop Garrigan’s Class of 2026 graduated last Sunday. Twenty-eight seniors received diplomas, and twenty-one of those had special notations for graduating with honors. More than $385,000 worth of scholarships were also awarded at graduation from alumni, community organizations, and friends of the school. On top of that the seniors earned nearly $500,000 in academic and athletic scholarships from the colleges they will be attending

The oldest and most prestigious of the scholarships is the Francis Conway Scholarship, which honors Garrigan’s first superintendent. This year Kayden Graves, Tate Foertsch, and Ava Roethler all received Fr. Conway scholarships. Those with the biggest monetary value include the H & K Scholarship (split by Allison Denker, Hailee Retuzel, Alyssa Haugland, Ava Roethler, Aubrey Meyer, Carter Schwab, and Carley Nielson) and the Bestenlehner (best-in-LINE-er) Scholarship (which went to twelve different seniors).

Addison Kuper presented the gift from the Class of 2026. They will be buying a new mascot costume to replace Gary the Bear. Additional money will go to help out the capital campaign. Alyssa Haugland gave the farewell speech, where she took time to mention every senior’s talents and interests individually.

For the past thirty years Garrigan has presented pins to seniors who are active in a wide range of activities. This year almost two-thirds of the class was honored with gold and silver pins. Sacha Alesch, Tate Foertsch, Amaury Thomas, Ava Roethler, Rosanne Curtis—Rivke, Gabe Swift, Kayden Graves, Alyssa Haugland, and Addison Kuper all received gold pins.

Students receiving silver pins included Ava Snider, Emmi Bartolo, Kyle Bormann, Carter Schwab, Hailee Reutzel, Allison Denker, Ethan Marso, Aubrey Meyer, and Carter McGregor. Congratulations to these seniors for their widespread participation in activities.

Last week twelve Garrigan students went over to Waldorf College for the Top of Iowa Conference Art Show. Cate Birkey earned first place in Paper Arts for her quilling project. Eva Kohlhaas won second place honors in Acrylic Painting, Olivia Roethler was third in Colored Pencil Drawing, and Leah Reutzel’s colored pencil work earned her an honorable mention. Others at the art show were Lucas Behounek, Alice Casey, Piper Roethler, Alyssa Haugland, Josephine Joyce, Haley Nemmers, Emma Garman, and Madden Miller.

Senior artist Alyssa Haugland was also honored with the Bishp Garrigan art award. In addition to receiving a scholarship, Alyssa’s oil painting “Nearing Towards Night” will remain on display at Garrigan for future students to see. Congratulations to her and to all our artists!

Baseball season starts this coming week. The Bears will open the season by playing Algona High Tuesday night. Three seniors will be at the core of this year’s Golden Bear team—Carter Schwab, Tate Foertsch, and Kayden Graves. Juniors Aidan Deitering, Nate Leerar, and Eli Casey also return from last year’s team, and Marshall Bormann will be joining them.

The sophomore baseball players include Brad Meister, Nolan Antoine, Alec Deitering, Henry Bode, and Karson Kramer. Jerad Graves is the lone freshman out for baseball, but he’s joined by eighth graders Tate Bartolo, Collin Schwab, Cael Charbonneaux, Kody Wiemers, Christopher Leerar, Briggs Ludwig, Duke Snider, and Connor Plathe.

Alyssa Haugland is the lone returning senior on the Golden Bear softball team. Her teammates include Shiloh Trainer, Jenna Peterson, Lilly Wickman, Avery Culbertson, Emma Garman, Kiah Villareal, Rikaya Nielson, Addie Bartolo, Rachel Kahle, and Riley Doerning. Softball begins their season May 26th at Belmond. Varsity softball generally starts at 6pm, followed by JV, while JV baseball starts at 5:30pm, with varsity at 7:00. Good luck all summer, baseball and softball!

Last week we held the DARTS awards for non-sports activities. Those included our announcers here on the “Bear Facts”. Tate Foertsch was named the Outstanding Broadcaster for 2026, and he’s looking at doing sportscasts for a campus radio station while he’s in college. Other “Bear Facts” letterwinners were seniors Sacha Alesch, Hailey Reutzel, Aubrey Meyer, Emmi Bartolo, Kayden Graves, and Alyssa Haugland; juniors Graclyn Eastman, Aidan Deitering, Nathan Leerar, Shiloh Trainer, and Harper Nelson; and freshman Lucy Eisenbarth.

Six students were also honored as quiz bowl letterwinners. They include Eva Kohlhaas, Amaury Thomas, Aidan Deitering, and Corbin Darling. The Coach’s Appreciation Award for 2026 went to Marshall Bormann, and this year’s quiz bowl MVP was Tate Foertsch. Congratulations to them.

On our Golden Bear calendar, there’s a home trapshooting meet this morning. Monday is the last day of school. We’ll take our last finals and then dismiss at noon with parish busing.

There’s boys’ district golf on Monday, and Tuesday night the baseball team hosts Algona High. Girls’ regional golf is Wednesday, and state track will be next Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in Des Moines.

The band will play for Memorial Day a week from Monday, and the state golf meets are later that week. Other highlights of the summer include the CYO baseball and softball tournaments on June 6 and state trapshooting June 7.

Garrigan graduate Tommy Kollasch will be ordained a priest on Saturday, June 27 in Sioux City. District baseball starts July 3, and regional softball begins July 6. The state tournaments for summer sports are July 13 – 17.

Fall sports camps and practices begin August 3, and the teachers come back for inservice on August 18. Finally school starts up again on Monday, August 24.

That wraps up the “Bear Facts” for this school year. We want to thank all the sponsors who have kept our show on KLGA for the past thirty-four years, and thanks also to our faculty sponsor David Burrow.

Thanks to all of you for tuning in each week. We’ll be off for the summer, but we hope to be back on Saturday, August 29, to bring you more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.