The Bear Facts
March 19, 2011
Good morning! I’m Kristin Berte!
And I’m Michael Fakler! You’re listening to the “Bear Facts”. Thanks for joining us to
hear the news from Bishop Garrigan High School.
Last night was a first for the Golden Bear quiz bowl team. They hosted their
first-ever community trivia event. Eighteen teams registered for the tournament,
a better turn-out than anyone expected. Seniors Jake Rosenmeyer and Anna
Kollasch organized the event. They and their fellow quiz bowl veterans wrote the
questions, compiled the brackets, and made all the other arrangements it takes
to host a big event. The community tournament turned out to be a great
fundraiser, taking in more than $600 to help with the cost of going to nationals
this summer. Thanks to everyone who participated in the community quiz bowl.
Before they head to nationals, the Bears will have another big
challenge. Next weekend seven Golden Bears will be competing in a regional
academic competition at Gretna High School in suburban Omaha. Jake Rosenmeyer,
Anna Kollasch, Michael Fakler, Alex Hamilton, Michael Hellman, Philip Detrick,
and Levi Bernhard will have a full day of competition in Omaha. Good luck, quiz
bowl!
Last Saturday the Golden Bear speech team competed at the state individual
contest, which was held at Algona High School. Traveling across town instead of
across the state seemed to give the Bears a home team advantage, because they
did just about as well as they could possibly do. Bishop Garrigan ended up
earning eighteen Division One or “excellent” ratings and eight Division Two or
“good” ratings.
Among those earning Ones were Jake Rosenmeyer, Rachel Berte, and Amelia
Golwitzer in Literary Program; Craig Kohlhaas, Matthew Fakler, and Philip
Detrick in Improvisation; Anna Kollasch in Musical Theatre; Jake Rosenmeyer,
Philip Detrick, and Michael Fakler in After-Dinner Speaking; Anna Hohmeister in
Prose; Michael Fakler in Public Address; Lizzy Hohmeister, Anna Kollasch, and
Anna Hohmeister in Storytelling; and Drew Magill, Erica Carlson, and Levi
Bernhard in Poetry.
The Division Two ratings went to Michael Hellman, Craig Kohlhaas, Jenny Broesder,
Andrea Altman, Alissa Kirsch, Melanie Mergen, Lizzy Hohmeister, and Levi
Bernhard. Congratulations to all these students and to speech coaches Mary
McCall and David Burrow.
There was even more good news for two of the Garrigan speech students on Monday.
That afternoon we learned that Jake Rosenmeyer and Matthew Fakler had been
selected as Outstanding Performers and will perform at the All-State Speech
Festival. Jake will be presenting his After-Dinner speech “Gambling Grandmas
without Limits”, while Matthew will present an improvisation scene. The
All-State Speech Festival will be Monday, March 28, at UNI.
March madness is here, and this year for a bit of variety Mrs. Greteman, the
Garrigan librarian is putting a twist on the fun. In a friendly competition each
homeroom filled out a bracket—but instead of basketball teams the bracket showed
their favorite books. We voted on books ranging from The Great Gatsby and
Huckleberry Finn to Twilight and Lord of the Rings to Curious George and The Cat
in the Hat. This is one of many projects Mrs. Greteman has done throughout the
year to get kids more involved with the library and with books in general.
It’s also March madness for intramural basketball. The faculty team finished the
regular season undefeated, but they are not eligible to advance to playoffs. In
the intramural Final Four, the top seed is the team of Tyler Lallier, Brandon
Schiltz, Andrew Schiltz, Billy Schiltz, Luke Eischen, Eric Baumann, and Daniel
Gelhaus. Second seed goes to Jake Rosenmeyer, Travis Cruise, Zach Zittritsch,
Kevil Laubenthal, Alex Hamilton, Michael Hellman, and Drew Magill. The fourth seed is a team captained by Jason Reding, while Dillon Walker’s team has the
third seed. Intramural playoffs will be tomorrow starting at 12:30 in Friedmann
Auditorium.
Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Brittany Brandt and Ryya Kumm. Here to
tell you about her is Ashley Bode.
Brittany Brandt keeps busy with track in the spring and cross-country in the
fall. She has been in choir in the past, and she still sings with the youth
choir at Life Teen masses at St. Cecelia’s. Brittany helped out with the speech
contest Garrigan hosted last month, and she’s also volunteered on several other
occasions around school. We wish Brittany all the best after high school.
Ryya Kumm is a cheerleader who is also active in band and choir. Another of her
activities is speech, where she done group mime all through high school. Ryya
keeps busy with Christian Leadership in Action, and she helps with the Life Teen
masses. She is thinking of going to Briar Cliff next year, and we wish her good
luck.
Thanks, Ashley! On our Golden Bear calendar this week, spring begins tomorrow.
We’ll have the intramural playoffs starting at 12:30pm. Then on Monday boys golf
begins.
The juniors will take the ACRE test next week to see how their religion
knowledge is developing. Tuesday there’s a blood drive at AHS, and also that day
several Christian Leadership students will be helping at the Caring and Sharing
Hands Mission in Minneapolis.
We’ll have our annual Academic Banquet Tuesday night. Wednesday we’ll have the
sacrament of reconciliation, and then on Thursday the sophomores will have a
career day when they’ll visit different businesses around the community.
The third quarter ends on Friday. Finally next Saturday the quiz bowl team will
compete in a regional tournament in Omaha, Nebraska.
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.
KAL3/16/11
