The Bear Facts
October 18, 2014

 Good morning! I’m Mark Fakler!

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

 Did you know that Andrew Jackson was the only President who killed a man in a duel? … Or that Mozart wrote variations on the music for “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”? … Or that “Allen wrench” is a registered trademark for what the manufacturer calls a “hex key”? If your cranium is crammed with information like that, then you should be in quiz bowl.

 Today about two hundred students are at Garrigan to compete in the first and largest quiz bowl tournament of the year. This year marks the silver anniversary for Garrigan’s quiz bowl tournament. The number of teams has varied a lot over the years, from a low of eight the first year to a high of 72. There are fewer teams these days, mostly because a lot of the schools that used to come have merged. It’s still a big tournament, though, and we’ll be welcoming teams from as far away as Ankeny and Sioux City to this year’s event.

 One of the purposes for hosting our home tournament is to give everyone at Garrigan who wants to give quiz bowl a try the chance to compete. The Bears have seven teams entered in today’s tournament, and someone from Garrigan will play against every other team in the field. In addition to quiz bowl veterans like Zach and Tony Kollasch, Taylor Illg, and Devin Degen, there are names you’re more likely to know from sports—people like Reece Wadle, Andrew Miller, Ben Vaske, Zac Kibby, and Zach Boelter. That team did well last year, and we wish good luck to them and to all the Golden Bears who are competing today.
 Last Saturday a lot of hard work paid off for Garrigan’s Solid Gold Marching Band. They followed up their first place finish at Algona Band Day with a Division I rating at the state marching band contest. Bishop Garrigan got high marks across the board, but the judges were especially impressed with the strong, high-quality sound they were able to produce with one of the smallest bands entered in the competition. Congratulations to Director Ken Ferjak and the Garrigan band!

 The post-season is here for the Golden Bear volleyball and cross-country teams. The volleyball team made a respectable showing after their move to the North Iowa Conference, and they finished the season ranked #13 in Class 1-A. They’re hoping that leads to a good run in playoffs. The Bears will host the first three rounds of the regional tournament. They’ll face West Bend Mallard in the playoff opener next Tuesday. Then on October 28th they hope to take on the winner of Storm Lake St. Mary’s and Newell—Fonda. The regional semi-finals will be on Halloween night, also at Garrigan.

 The Golden Bear cross-country team has three runners ranked in the top twenty-five statewide: Zach and Tony Kollasch on the boys side and Emily Riesenberg for the girls. They and all the Bears will be running in the state qualifying meet next Thursday at Nashua. We’re hoping for at least a few state qualifiers, and we’d love it if the Bears head back to state as a team. Good luck, cross-country!

 Normally at this time of year we remind you that the student council’s magazine drive is coming up. This year we’re changing that up. Students will no longer be selling directly to families and neighbors. Instead the magazine drive is entirely online. On the “What’s New” page at bggoldenbears.org, you’ll find a link where you can make your purchases. Just like always, 40% of anything you spend helps support student activities here at Garrigan. You can select a specific student to get credit, and at the end of the year there will be a prize to the top seller. Again you can renew all your magazines online through a link at bggoldenbears.org.
 Everyone who’s gone to Garrigan in the last three decades knows that math teacher David Burrow likes to collect Pepsi memorabilia. In addition to decorating his room, Mr. Burrow uses some of the Pepsi stuff to illustrate mathematical concepts. This year, when he used a bank shaped like a Pepsi bottle in his Algebra class, the students suggested that they should try to fill the bank with coins. A challenge was born, and students have been bringing in their pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters—as well as dollar bills. The money will go to the student council’s Adopt-a-Family Christmas project, and we’ll be curious to see just how much the bank will collect through the fall.

 Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Morgan Frideres. Here to tell you about her is Toney Kollash.

 Morgan Frideres served as drum major for the award-winning Solid Gold Marching Band. She has also been to state in track and cross-country, and she’s won awards in choir and speech. Morgan’s Envirothon team finished 9th at state, and she also serves as co-president of the senior class. She’s also active in cheerleading and Christian Leadership in Action, and she teaches baton. Next year Morgan plans to major in education at UNI, and we wish her all the best in the future.

 Thanks, Tony! On our Golden Bear calendar this week, there’s the big quiz bowl tournament today. Competition starts at 10am, and the public is welcome to watch.

 Monday there’s JV football, with the Bears hosting Sioux Central. Then Tuesday playoff volleyball begins, with Garrigan hosting West Bend Mallard.

 The cross-country state qualifying meet is Thursday in Nashua. Finally next Friday the Golden Bear football team wraps up their regular season with a game at Britt West Hancock.

 That’s the “Bear Facts” for this week. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to tune in next week when we’ll be featuring all-state music and playoff football here at Bishop Garrigan High School.