THE BEAR FACTS
October 17, 2020

Good morning! I’m Ava Eisenbarth!

I’m Marguerite Fakler!

And I’m Maryanne Capesius! Thanks for tuning in to the “Bear Facts”, the weekly radio update from Bishop Garrigan High School.

It’s time for questions and answers! Did you know that a rival struck Michelangelo with a mallet, disfiguring him for life? Or that Phil Knight made prototypes for the soles of Nike shoes using a waffle iron in his kitchen? Or that the technical name for a hockey jersey is a “sweater”? You’d need to know those and many more facts to be a champion in quiz bowl.

The annual Bishop Garrigan quiz bowl tournament is split into two parts this year, since the coronavirus forced it to move online. Last week two teams from Garrigan competed, including a group of freshmen who did very well. Ben Greteman, Sam Plathe, Brendan Plathe, Benjy Trainer, and Nick Laubenthal had a 3 – 1 record on the day and finished in third place overall. They’re waiting to see how their performance compares to the teams competing this week to see if they’ll advance to playoffs.

Another team will be representing the Bears today. Senior Reese Rosenmeyer, juniors Ava Eisenbarth and Riley Rosenmeyer, and sophomore Garrett Heying will be playing four games throughout the day. Good luck to them and to all the teams competing in the Bishop Garrigan quiz bowl tournament.

The Bishop Garrigan fall musical is just around the corner. This year the music and drama departments are presenting Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The show was Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s first production, and it was purposely written to be performed by schools. It’s known for its wide variety of music, and it tells the story from Genesis of Joseph, his coat of many colors, and his imprisonment in Egypt.

Senior Joey Trainer will star as Joseph. The singing narrators are Marguerite Fakler, Meredith Tigges, and Ava Bartolo. There are twenty five other individual parts, and the whole Garrigan choir will be featured in the show. You can see the musical at 7pm on Saturday, November 7 or at 3pm on Sunday, November 8. Be sure to mark your calendar to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat!

It’s post-season time for Golden Bear sports. Last night the football team had a playoff game at Lake Mills, and the volleyball and cross-country teams have big nights next week. The volleyball team begins regional play next Monday by hosting Graettinger Terril Ruthven Ayrshire. Winning Monday would mean they’d advance to the regional quarterfinals Wednesday at West Bend.

For the cross-country team the state qualifying meet will be next Thursday at Central Springs in Manly. The Golden Bear boys team in particular has done very well lately, with multiple top-three finishes at regional meets. Quinn Swift and Joe Meis have been battling for the top spot on the team, and Gavin Swift has also been running well.

COVID-19 has made this a very unusual year, but lately things have been going better. The state’s new rules have meant far fewer healthy students have had to stay home, and in fact by the middle of this week we were pleased to find out none of our high school students were in quarantine. We hope the numbers continue to stay low as winter approaches.

There will continue to be some modifications due to the coronavirus. One change is that this year’s parent—teacher conferences will be held virtually. Parents can register online for a time to meet with their teachers, and the actual conferences will be held using Zoom. Conferences will be held November 2nd and 5th.

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Reese Rosenmeyer. Here to tell you about her is her sister Riley Rosenmeyer.

We read Reese Rosenmeyer’s name earlier this week on the quiz bowl roster. She’s been very successful in quiz bowl, including participating in nationals last summer. Reese plays varsity volleyball, and she’s been to state in basketball and track. She’s also won multiple awards in speech and DECA, and earlier this month she was inducted into the honor society. Reese will be off to college next year. I will miss her, but we wish her all the best.

Thanks, Riley! On our Golden Bear calendar, today we’ll be finishing up the virtual version of the BGHS quiz bowl tournament. Then on Monday the volleyball team opens regionals by hosting GTRA.

Tuesday several students will be enjoying a reward day from the calendar drive. Wednesday morning we’ll have a student mass, and that night there’s the second round of volleyball regionals at West Bend—Mallard.

Thursday afternoon the cross-country team will run in their state qualifying meet at Central Springs. The first quarter ends on Friday, and Saturday several Garrigan students will be competing in the virtual all-state music audition.

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