THE BEAR FACTS
February 18, 2023

Good morning! I’m Tate Foertsch!

 I’m Thadd Kollasch!

 And I’m Violet Bode! Thanks for joining us for the “Bear Facts”, the weekly radio show from Bishop Garrigan High School.

This is a busy weekend for a couple members of the Golden Bear quiz bowl team. Senior Gavin Swift and sophomore Scott Bormann are down in Ankeny this morning for the Iowa Quiz Bowl League winter open tournament. They’ll be taking on some of the top schools from all over central Iowa in a battle of knowledge. Good luck, quiz bowl!

The 2023 Bishop Garrigan Pops Concert is just around the corner. The big event is scheduled for next Friday, February 24—with a possible snow date of Saturday the 25th. The theme for pops concert this year is “A Night at the Movies”, and many of the songs feature from well-known films.

Among the soloists this year you’ll hear Audi Crooks singing “I Will Always Love You”, Joey Doerning will perform “The Villain I Appear to Be”, Drew Casey’s solo is “Bye Mom”, Savannah Waechter will be featured with “The Anonymous Ones”, Nate Bronk is singing “Your Man”, Ali Lallier will present “Lift Me Up”, Lauren Swift’s solo is “Made You Look”, Benjy Trainer will perform “I’m Yours”, Izzy Waechter is singing “Fly”, and Eva Snyder will be presenting “Dream a Little Dream of Me”.

The duets include Benjy Trainer and Nate Bronk with “Colder Weather”, Audi Crooks and Maggie Vaske singing “Hallelujah”, Gavin Swift and Joey Doerning with “Where’s the Orchestra”, Violet Bode and Benjy Trainer performing “Love Is an Open Door”, and Savannah and Isabella Waechter with “For Good”. There’s also a trio with Nate Bronk, Drew Casey, and Aidan Hovey singing “You’re Gonna Miss This”.

The last small group at pops is Madelyn Bronk, Alaina Bormann, Griffin Geving, Elena Salinas, and Gavin Swift, who are performing “Tennessee Orange”. You’ll also hear from the full band and choir, the girls and boys in choir, and the jazz choir. Be sure to be there next Friday night for Pops Concert 2023.

There’s been some exciting basketball at Garrigan this past week. Last Monday the Golden Bear boys hosted West Bend—Mallard in the first round of districts. The Bears were down by ten points at halftime, but they came charging back. Senior Drew Fogarty had an awesome game, and Jack Grandgenett and Ryan Noonan both drained clutch free throws. In the end the Bears beat the Wolverines 80 – 71 to move on in playoffs.

The girls had a much easier time with their first regional game. They played Graettinger Terril – Ruthven Ayrshire on Tuesday night, and Bishop Garrigan was in command throughout the game. The Bears led 22 – 2 at the end of the first quarter, and they just kept increasing that lead. Even when the JV went in at the end of the game, they capped things off by draining some more three-pointers. The final score was Bishop Garrigan 80, GTRA 27.

 We had to record this week’s show before the Bears game against St. Ansgar on Friday. The Bears were heavily favored in that game as well, though, and a win would advance them to the regional finals next Wednesday. The most likely opponent in that substate game would be Riceville. Good luck, Golden Bear girls!

 Next weekend lots of Garrigan students will be heading down to Des Moines for the 2023 state DECA conference. DECA is an international organization whose goal is “preparing emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management”. Garrigan has had a very active DECA chapter for nearly a decade now, and we hope to do well in this year’s contest.

Garrigan’s DECA members are competing in diverse areas like Apparel and Accessories, Automotive Services, Hotel and Lodging, Human Resource Management, Restaurant and Food Service, Sports and Entertainment, Travel and Tourism, Retail Merchandising, Hospitality Services, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship. The categories cover just about every field of business. We’ll tell you more about the state entries on next week’s show.

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Jordan Blocker. Here to tell you about her is Ella Schaaf.

 Jordan Blocker comes to Garrigan from the Fenton area. She loves her art classes, and her work has been entered in conference and regional art shows. Outside of school, Jordan is active in dance, and she also enjoys helping out with little kids. We wish her all the best after high school.

 Thanks, Ella. On our Golden Bear calendar this week, there’s quiz bowl today, with the Bears traveling to Ankeny. Then on Monday track practice begins—even with snow still on the ground.

 There’s a preschool concert Monday night in Friedmann Auditorium. Tuesday we’ll have mass in the morning. Then on Wednesday there’s a teacher inservice day.

While the Algona Community Schools are making up time next Wednesday, there will be no classes at Garrigan and Seton. This balances some of the time when we had parish busing, but Algona had no school earlier in the year.

The girls play their regional final Wednesday night for the right to return to state. Next Friday is the pops concert, and then on Saturday the speech team will travel to district contest at Okoboji.

 That’s the “Bear Facts” for another week. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to tune in again next Saturday when we’re crossing our fingers that we’ll be previewing another state basketball tournament for the Bishop Garrigan Golden Bears.