The Bear Facts
September 19, 2026

Good morning! I’m Coralyn Deardeuff!

I’m Sheila Reding!

And I’m Bree Ludwig! Welcome once again to the “Bear Facts”, the weekly radio show from Bishop Garrigan High School.

We’ve been celebrating Homecoming 2026 this past week, and it’s been a fun time for everyone. The Homecoming theme this year is “Lights! Camera! Action!”, and the dress-up days have highlighted our favorite movies. Tuesday we elected our Homecoming royalty. Congratulations to Queen Bree Ludwig and King Madden Miller!

This is the first time ever that we’ve been able to talk about the Homecoming football game on “Bear Facts” right after it happened. Because of threatening weather on Friday, the Bears played St. Edmond Thursday night. It was an especially big night for the Golden Bears’ special teams—from Dalton Klenz running back the opening kick for a touchdown to Woodrow Wells blocking a punt at the end of the game. The Bears shirts this year say “Leave no doubt,” and that’s what they did in this game. The final score was Garrigan 63, St. Edmond 0.

A big part of Homecoming every year is the Battle of the Classes, where everyone competes in different games. There was some controversy this year, but we still had lots of fun playing card games, volleyball, home run derby, spikeball, bean bag toss, pickleball, bucket ball, ultimate frisbee, kickball, dodgeball, kan jam, competitive eating, egg toss, three-legged races, and tug-of-war. All four classes won different events, and it was one of the closest class competitions we’ve ever had.

This has been a big week for Golden Bear cross-country. Last Saturday the Bears ran at CYO, which was part of the Tim Thomas Invitational at Holstein. Junior Julia Swift won the CYO championship, and she was also the fastest of all the small school runners. Sophomore Rachel Kahle also won all-CYO honors, finishing in 6th place among the Catholic schools in northwest Iowa.

The Bears also ran in the Emmetsburg Invitational Meet last Tuesday. Julia Swift was the champion in that meet as well, finishing the 5-kilometer course in a time of 20 minutes, 17 seconds, which was 55 seconds faster than second place. Rachel Kahle also medaled for her 12th place finish. On the boys’ side freshman Samuel Foix medaled with a 10th place finish, and Caiden Buckner finished 12th. Congratulations, cross country!

For the musical this year, Bishop Garrigan will be producing Descendents, which is based on the Disney musical fantasy franchise. Main parts will be played by Shiloh Trainer, Aidan Deitering, Cora Deardeuff, and Delaney Fessler, as well as Matt Besch, Henry Bode, Alice Casey, Eva Kohlhaas, and Jerad Graves. The cast also features Anaya Thomas, Caiden Buckner, Madelyn Tigges, Addison Laubenthal, Abigail Deardeuff, and Leo Snyder.

Rounding out the cast are Rachel Kahle, Holden Glawe, Riley Doerning, and Karina Chen, plus Charlotte Patten, Kylie Capesius, Brynlie Erpelding, Mya Penton, and Katy Herrick. Mark your calendar for Friday, November 6, and Sunday, November 8 to see Disney’s Descendents on the Garrigan stage.

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on our Homecoming Queen, Bree Ludwig. Here to tell you about her is Harper Nelson.

Bree Ludwig is a Wesley native who is a football cheerleader and part of the competition cheer squad. Bree is also in basketball and golf, and she helps out on the stage crew for plays and musicals. She’s in student council, and you may have heard her announcing here on the “Bear Facts”. Bree is involved in FFA and 4-H, and she likes showing horses, pigs, and cows at the fair. Congratulations to our Homecoming Queen, Bree Ludwig!

Thanks, Harper! On our Golden Bear calendar, there’s the CYO volleyball tournament this morning at Sioux City Heelan. There’s also a swim meet in Ft. Dodge today.

Monday the cross-country team runs at Humboldt and there’s also a JV football game, with the Bears facing GTRA in Graettinger. Then on Tuesday there’s a swim meet in Spencer.

We’ll have mass on Wednesday morning. Thursday morning there’s a blood drive. That night the Algona girls swim team hosts a home meet at the Algona YMCA.

Next Friday night the football team has their biggest road trip of the season. They’ll make a four-hour trip southward to play Bedford. Game time is 6pm, and as always it will be livestreamed on the Algona Radio YouTube channel.That’s the “Bear Facts” for another week. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to tune in again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.