Good morning! I'm Jesse Bode!
And I'm Cassie Recker! Welcome once again to the "Bear Facts", the radio show where every week we keep you in touch with all the news from Bishop Garrigan High School.
This morning about 300 students from all over northern Iowa are on their way to Garrigan. What will they be doing? - They're here to spend the day answering questions. Hopefully they'll know things like the fact that the boundary between the attack zone and the neutral zone in hockey is called the blue line, Connecticut is the wealthiest state in America, and the new $20 bills the government is issuing have multi-colored backgrounds. All those facts and literally thousands of others come up in today's tournament.
There are sixty-six teams entered in the Garrigan Classic Quiz Bowl, which makes it by far the largest tournament in Iowa and one of the largest academic competitions anywhere in America. Teams are coming from as far away as LeMars, Boone, and Parkersburg. Area schools competing include West Bend/Mallard, Algona High, Twin River Valley, North Kossuth, Armstrong/Ringsted, Corwith/Wesley/Luverne, Humboldt, and North Iowa. Good luck to all the area participants.
Garrigan itself has thirty-eight students competing today. The top team features national veterans John Kohlhaas and Matt Courtney, together with Amber Golwitzer, Scott Stence, and Tyler Rolling. Eric Cassmann is captain of a team that includes Jeff Lappe, Josh Broesder, and Chris Loebach. Alison Brandenburg will captain the team with fellow sophomores Jacob Hellman, Gavin Freking, Joe Rahm, and Spenser Rahm. Jacob Richter will captain a team with Anthony McGuire, Andrew Missal, Seth Rogers, and Brandon Rowley.
Also playing for Garrigan is Captain Renee Taphorn, whose team includes Jacob Detrick, Brianne Donahe, Noah Devine, and Jude Studer. Captain Jesse Bode will play with Adam Cink, Mason Elbert, and Kris Sutter. Alex Bradley will captain a freshman team that features Brian Capesius, Josh Rahm, Alex Elbert, and Logan Wood. Garrigan's final team includes captain Amanda Golwitzer, together with Chris Scobba, Jesse Studer, Bridget Doughan, and Samantha Kirsch. All the teams will play four preliminary games, and we hope several of the Garrigan groups make the play-offs this afternoon.
Sports play-offs are almost here. Next Thursday the cross-country team will be running at district in Holstein. The boys team is hoping to win the district meet, and both the boys and girls stand a legitimate chance of qualifying for state. Also Thursday the volleyball team opens district play. Their first round opponent will be Emmetsburg. Good luck in post-season action to both the cross-country and volleyball teams.
The football team is also looking forward to play-offs, but they still have two more regular season games. That means you have two more chances to see both the football team and the Golden Bear football cheerleaders. The cheerleaders are there at every game, firing up the crowd and cheering the team on to victory. This year's football cheerleaders include seniors Brooke Myers, Cassie Recker, and Melissa Vaske; as well as juniors Amanda Thompson, Ashley Shaw, Jill Patterson, Amanda Fox, and Katelyn Besch. The cheerleaders are on a special retreat in Des Moines this weekend, and we'd like to thank them for all the work they do.
Mole Day is coming. You probably didn't know or care about that, but science teacher Greg Ahlers does. A mole is a standard measurement in science called Avogadro's number, which is 6.02 x 1023 (or 620,000,000,000,000,000,000,000). Science nerds celebrate Mole Day from 6:02am to 6:02pm on October 23rd each year. There's even a National Mole Day committee with its own website. This year they chose "Rock 'n' Mole" as the theme for Mole Day, 2003. Mr. Ahlers will meet with several of his students for an early breakfast in honor of Mole Day next Thursday. We wish them all a Happy Mole Day.
Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Adam Cink. Here to tell you about him is Jesse Bode.
Adam Cink is one of the Garrigan students who will be answering questions at the big quiz bowl today. Aside from quiz bowl, his other main activity is intramural basketball, and he's also been involved in the tech crew for plays and concerts. Adam comes to Garrigan from Wesley. His favorite class is physics, and he looks forward to majoring in engineering at college. We wish Adam all the best in the future.
Thanks, Jesse! On our Golden Bear calendar today there's the thirteenth annual Bishop Garrigan Classic Quiz Bowl Tournament. The public is welcome to come out to school to see what all the fuss is involved. Admission is free.
Also today the cheerleaders are on an overnight trip to Des Moines. Then Monday the freshman football team plays Algona High.
Tuesday the juniors will take the PSAT, while the sophomores take the Asset test. That night the school board meets.
Next Thursday is National Mole Day. That night the cross-country team runs in the district meet at Holstein while the volleyball team hosts Emmetsburg for their district opener. Then on Friday the football team travels to Jewell South Hamilton.
Finally this week, we'd like to Congratulate band director and assistant counselor Dennis Freking, who was chosen as this year's Garrigan nominee for the Bishop Lawrence Soens Excellence in Education Award, the highest award the Sioux City Diocese gives to teachers. Mr. Freking will be among those honored at the annual Bishop's dinner in Sioux City Sunday night.
That's the "Bear Facts" for this week. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to tune in again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.
