The Bear Facts
January 19, 2013
Good morning! I’m Allison Frideres!
And I’m Grace Steil! Thanks for joining us for the
“Bear Facts”, the radio show where each week we keep you up-to-date on all the
news from Bishop Garrigan High School.
Last Tuesday thirteen members of Garrigan’s Christian
Leadership in Action Group went up to the Twin Cities, where they did a service
project at Mary’s Place, the Caring and Sharing Hands Mission. Mary’s Place is
located across the street from Target Field, and they provide food, clothing,
and lodging for homeless people and others who need a helping hand. The Garrigan
students toured the facility and helped to prepare a meal at the mission.
Students who made the trip to Mary’s place include
seniors Elliot Boisjolie, Alissa Kirsch, Victor Berte, MaKayla Foertsch, and
Kendra Roethler; as well as Jonathan Berte, Jake Kollasch, Sophie Behr, Savannah
McNertney, Rebecca Richter, and Erin Reedy. Also making the trip were juniors
Anna Hohmeister and Sydney McNertney. Garrigan will be doing two other service
projects at Mary’s Place later this winter.
Christian Leadership is also planning a special event
next Tuesday to mark the fortieth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court
decision that legalized abortion across the United States. Students will see a
film to help them learn about some of the effects of that decision and will join
together Catholics around the country in offering their prayers. Mr. Rob Meister
organizes the Christian Leadership group at Garrigan.
Also coming up next week is the annual senior retreat.
The Class of 2013 will head over to Cedar Falls on Wednesday, and they’ll spend
that night and the next morning learning more about themselves and their faith.
The event will be at the North American Martyrs Retreat Center. Garrigan has had
our senior retreats there for several years now. Past classes have found them
both interesting and inspirational, and we hope that will be true this year as
well.
Last Saturday the Bishop Garrigan math team competed
in a Great Plains Math League qualifying competition at Iowa Falls. While
Garrigan is officially in the “small schools” division, that class includes
schools with anything less than 700 students. Because of that, it’s even more
impressive that the Bears ended up in second place overall in both the varsity
and JV competitions. They ended up losing the championship by just two-thirds of
a point to Cedar Rapids Xavier.
Even more impressive was that Garrigan qualified nine
students for the state math competition, which will take place in Iowa City next
April. Qualifying for state were exchange student Sia, together with Kylie Fox,
Zach Kollasch, Brittany Kirsch, Jake Hamilton, Dorothy Kirsch, Kaitlyn Fogarty,
Allison Frideres, and McKayla Foertsch. Congratulations to Coach Daryl Kohlhaas
and the entire math team!
Today twenty-eight BGHS students are over in Spencer
for the Iowa High School Speech Association district large-group speech contest.
The day begins with two musical theatre selections. Then around 10:50 there will
be a group mime, followed by a Readers Theatre. Garrigan has two acting
ensembles performing in the early afternoon. Around 1:30 an improv group will
perform, as well as our radio broadcasting team. The day concludes at 3pm, with
our short film entry. Best wishes to Coaches Mary McCall and David Burrow and
all the speech competitors!
Intramural basketball action began last Sunday, with
three big games. Each week the referees name a Player of the Week, and in the
first week of the season there were a lot of possibilities. Among them was
junior Dillon Walker, who still had a boot on his leg from a snowmobile accident
earlier in the winter. Beating him out, though, was the week’s top scorer, Corey
Weydert, who racked up 28 points in intramurals. The fun continues tomorrow,
with two more games starting at 1pm.
You’ve likely heard rumors for some time now, and last
week the Bishop Garrigan school board officially voted to change conferences.
There are a lot of mixed feelings with the move. Garrigan has been part of the
North Central Conference for twenty years now, and while we’ve done fairly well
overall—especially in sports like golf and baseball—we’ve been by far the
smallest school in the conference. Moving to the North Iowa Conference will pit
us mostly against other 1-A schools that are closer to our size. The change in
affiliation won’t take effect until 2014, so the Golden Bears will still be in
the North Central Conference for another year and a half.
Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Jake
Kollasch. Jake comes to Garrigan from the Whittemore area. He keeps busy with
football and baseball, and in the winter he enjoys intramural basketball. Jake
is a National Honor Society member and a class officer on student council. He
also serves on the school wellness committee. When he’s not at school, he works
at the Kerber Milling in Emmetsburg. Jake wants to go to medical school in the
future, and he’ll be starting college at Iowa State next fall. Good luck, Jake!
On our Golden Bear calendar, there’s district
large-group speech today in Spencer. Tomorrow intramural basketball continues.
Tuesday we’ll have a prayer service to mark the 40th
anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. That night the varsity basketball teams
play at Webster City.
We’ll have a student mass on Wednesday, followed by an
early dismissal for teacher inservice. The junior high will have their education
fair on Wednesday, and also the seniors will leave for their retreat in Cedar
Falls.
The seniors return from retreat on Thursday, and that
night the freshman basketball teams host West Hancock. Also on Thursday Morgan
Muller and Vanessa Arndorfer will be at an FFA event in Des Moines.
Next Friday the JV and varsity bears host Hampton
Dumont for Senior Night. Finally on Saturday the quiz bowl team will compete at
Sioux City Heelan.
That’s the “Bear Facts” for another week. Thanks for
tuning in, and be sure to join us again next week when we’ll be telling you all
about Catholic Schools Week here at Bishop Garrigan High School.
JasonReding1/17/13
