THE BEAR FACTS
December 19, 2020

(Jingle bells ring)

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas! I’m Joseph Trainer!

I’m Jack Snyder!

I’m Aric Laubenthal!

And I’m Meredith Tigges! Seasons Greetings from the “Bear Facts” and all of us at Bishop Garrigan High School.

Last spring the Golden Bear girls basketball team advanced all the way to the state championship game. In that game they fell to Newell—Fonda, a team that continued a string of two straight years without a loss. The Bears faced the Mustangs again last week, but the outcome was very different than it was in March. While it was close at halftime, Garrigan owned the second half. They beat the #1 team in the state by a final score of 66 – 45.

Garrigan is likely to go into the Christmas season as the top team in Class 1-A. They’ll be playing up a couple classes when they take on Algona High this afternoon, and then next Tuesday they’ll be back in conference play as they travel to North Iowa. We’re crossing our fingers that another trip to Des Moines is on the horizon for the Golden Bear girls.

We mentioned last weekend that four freshmen on the Golden Bear quiz bowl team were participating in a nationwide Rookie Challenge. The Bears made a pretty good showing in that tournament, finishing #15 nationwide. There’s more quiz bowl action today, with Garrigan participating in the online Waukee Warrior Tournament. Good luck, quiz bowl!

Christmas is coming soon, and again this year the “Bear Facts” prepared for the season by giving a holiday survey to students at Garrigan. We asked people what they would like for Christmas this year. The single most popular answer was the Playstation 5, but there were lots of other answers. Lexi Galligan said she wanted a piano and a Lakers sweatshirt, Drew Casey wants airpods, and Joey Doening said she wants world peace—and a puppy.
Gracie Rosenmeyer says she wants anything for her horse. Aric Laubenthal would like an Allen Iverson jersey, Sam Plathe says he wants a boomerang, Caleb Bormann wants to go hunting with a new gun, and Luke Bernhard wants parts to make his truck go fast. Joey Trainer said he wants a hippopotamus for Christmas, and Ava Eisenbarth said she wants a billion dollars. She put a smiley face by that, though, and her list also included things like a new phone, jewelry, and new clothes.

Our next question was what people’s plans were over Christmas break. With all the changes this year, there’s a lot less travel plans than usual. However a few people are planning to go to cabins in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and different branches of the Casey family are hoping to enjoy some ribs in Kansas City.

Grant Haugland says he plans to spend the holidays sleeping, while Savannah Waechter said her plan for vacation was “sleep, eat, repeat”. Emma Grandgenett plans to hang with her friends, Molly Joyce wants to do some baking over the holidays, and Marissa Rahe is planning to drink lots of hot chocolate and watch Christmas movies.

Our third question was “What’s your favorite Christmas food or snack?” Tara Kron says she likes Snickers salad, Hollis Bode likes eating cookie dough, and Jacob Leerar likes Scotcheroos. Amber Hackett’s enjoys honey ham at Christmas, Joseph Meis loves hot cocoa, and Riley Rosenmeyer says she likes eating white jello and Scandanavian krumkakes. Other popular holiday foods included oreo balls, egg nog, pecan sandies, peanut brittle, chocolate covered peanut butter sandwich cookies, and peppermint mocha frappes from Coffee Lush.

Katelyn Cink enjoys chocolate covered pretzels at Christmas, and Isabel Casey likes her aunt’s homemade caramels. Veronica Capesius loves mashed potatoes, while her sister Maryanne prefers stuffing. Eva Snyder enjoys gingerbread, and Molly Bormann says she’ll eat “honestly anything”. Then there’s FFA officer Collin Casey, who says his favorite holiday food is FFA fruit from the Algona FFA chapter.

Our final question was “What’s your weirdest Christmas memory?” For Olivia Arndorfer that was when her brother wouldn’t eat his cheesy potatoes, and the whole family had to wait until he did to open Christmas presents. That was interesting, because for Nathan Merron cheesy potatoes were his favorite holiday food.

Some other weird memories were getting stranded in Minnesota, splitting an eyebrow open, having Christmas trees fall over, and a priest personally say Christmas Eve mass at their home. Meredith Tigges thought that giving her uncle pickled pig’s feet was strange, and Abbie Capesius’s weirdest memory was shattering a light fixture while playing basketball at Christmas. Then there’s Audi Crooks, who set up a spy camera hoping to catch Santa on camera, but her dreams were crushed when all she recorded was her mother.

Our Senior Spotlight for the holidays shines on Joey Trainer. Here to tell you about him is EEEEE.

You can call him Joseph, Joey, or Joe Trainer, but you can’t miss seeing him around Garrigan. Joey is in pretty much every activity there is. His biggest accomplishments are probably in choir, where he’s been won four all-state medals and having the lead in the musical. He’s also won awards in band, speech, drama, quiz bowl, and math team. He’s an important part of the Golden Bear football, baseball, and track teams, and he’s also been to state three times in swimming. He’s also a top-notch student, and you’ve heard him announcing here on the “Bear Facts”. Joey plans to attend UNI next year, and we know he’ll continue to do well in the future.

While we have three weeks of events, it’s still a pretty light Golden Bear calendar. There’s quiz bowl this morning, and this afternoon the Bears play a basketball quad at Algona High.

Tomorrow is the fourth Sunday of Advent. Monday we’ll dress in Christmas clothes at school, and that night the JJV boys basketball team will host Garner Hayfield Ventura.

Tuesday we have an early dismissal for Christmas vacation. That night the JV and varsity Bears play at Garner. Then there’s no school and no events all the way through New Year’s.

Classes resume at Garrigan and Seton on Monday, January 3rd. We’ll have parish busing that day because the Algona Community Schools aren’t in session. The Bears host Forest City on Tuesday the 5th, and they’ll play at Clear Lake Friday the 8th.

That’s our last “Bear Facts” for 2020. Thanks for tuning in. We’ll be off for the next two weeks for Christmas vacation, but be sure to join us Saturday, January 9th, when we’ll be back with more news from Bishop Garrigan High School. Until then …

EVERYONE: MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYBODY!

(Jingle bells ring)