THE BEAR FACTS
MAY 20, 2023

Good morning! I’m Violet Bode!

I’m Ella Schaaf!

And I’m Reagan Murphy! Welcome to our final “Bear Facts” of the 2022-23 school year. Thanks for joining us to hear the news from Bishop Garrigan High School.

If you happened to read the Lumen, the newspaper of the Sioux City Diocese, this past week, you may have seen an interesting article. They featured us, the “Bear Facts” show from Bishop Garrigan. The article talks about what people learn from announcing the show and what goes on behind the scenes—like our favorite part, the bloopers that never make it to the final cut. If you don’t get the Lumen at home, you can read about the “Bear Facts” online at lumenmedia.org.

The state track meet is happening this weekend in Des Moines, and Garrigan has lots of entries at state. On the boys side, Cal Birkey qualified for state in both the 100 and 200-meter dash, and Justin Bauer qualified in the 400-meter run. Two relays also qualified: the 4 by 400 relay with Caden Roethler, Andrew Lichter, Trayton Cink, and Justin Bauer; and the sprint medley with Caden Roethler, Owen Murphy, Cal Birkey, and Justin Bauer. Alternates for the boys at state are Kyle Bormann, Schyler Morse, and Ethan Marso.

The girls qualifiers include defending state champions Audi Crooks in the shot put and discus and Molly Joyce in the long jump. Molly also qualified for state in the 100-meter hurdles, with a school record time of 15.4 seconds, which broke her own school record. Reagan Murphy also qualified for state in the 100-meter hurdles, and Abbie Capesius qualified in the 400-meter dash.

The Golden Bear girls have three relays running at state: the shuttle hurdle relay with Emmi Bartolo, Zoe Montag, Reagan Murphy, and Molly Joyce; the 4 by 100 with Emmi Bartolo, Reagan Murphy, Zoe Montag, and Abbie Capesius; and the 4 by 400 with Zoe Montag, Abbie Capesius, Reagan Murphy, and Molly Joyce. Alternates on the girls team are Molly Peterson and Violet Bode. Congratulations to all the state track qualifiers!

While the season is over for the Golden Bear golf teams, we had some good success at sectionals. Junior Ben Greteman was medalist at the boys sectional meet, and Avery Lichter had the low score for the girls. Congratulations, golfers!

With school out, summer sports are here. Here to tell you about them are Abbie Capesius and Brendan Plathe.

The Golden Bear baseball team began their season yesterday at Algona High, and today they’re hosting an all-day tournament. At the core of this year’s team are Garrett Heying (who will be playing college ball next year) and fellow seniors Cal Birkey, Nathan Merron, and Drew Fogarty. Juniors Justin Bauer, Drew Lappe, and Benjy Trainer also return from last year’s starting line-up.

Sophomores on the baseball team are Keaton Helleseth, Drew Muller, Nick Leerar, Scott Bormann, Brady Galligan, Thadd Kollasch, and Daniel Meis. Freshmen Carter Schwab, Amaury Thomas, Kyle Bormann, Kayden Graves, Lucas Behounek, and Tate Foertsch are also out for baseball. Rounding out the team are eighth graders Leo Snyder, Marshall Bormann, Madden Miller, Eli Casey, Karson Sidles, and Caelum Blocker; plus Carson Pfeffer, Sawyer Herrick, Nate Leerar, Aiden Deitering, and Dalton Klenz. Good luck, baseball!

There are two seniors returning on the Golden Bear softball team: Joey Doerning and Darius Goche. At the core of the team are juniors Ella Schaaf, Abbie Capesius, Violet Bode, Ava Hough, and Morgan Antoine; and sophomores Zoe Montag, Hanna Merron, and Molly Peterson. The younger softball players are freshmen Emmi Bartolo, Sacha Alesch, and Alyssa Haugland; plus eighth graders Bree Ludwig and Shiloh Trainer. Good luck all summer long to the Golden Bear softball team!

This past week the Iowa Musical Theatre Association announced their awards for the 2022-23 school year, and Garrigan took several prizes for last fall’s production of The Wizard of Oz. Savannah Waechter and Nate Bronk were named outstanding performers (the highest individual award there is), and Savannah was invited to sing “Over the Rainbow” with a professional orchestra at the Showcase Review in Des Moines. Violet Bode, Benjy Trainer, and Sam Plathe earned special recognitions, and the “Jitterbug” scene earned the distinguished production award. Congratulations to everyone involved in the show.

This coming week the Bishop Garrigan drama and music departments will be holding auditions for next fall’s big musical. The show will be Singing in the Rain. While the show won’t be until November 3rd and 4th, we’re getting an early start on things. People auditioning for lead roles will need to do a dance, sing an excerpt, and read lines, while those in smaller parts just need to sing and read. Auditions are next Monday and Tuesday, with a dance workshop at 10am and auditions at noon.

Our Golden Bear calendar starts with a busy day today. The state track meet wraps up down at Drake Stadium, the baseball team has a home tournament with Webster City and Remsen St. Mary’s, and there’s a home trapshooting meet at the Izaak Walton Lodge.

Softball starts up on Monday with a home game against Belmond—Klemme. There are also musical auditions Monday and Tuesday afternoons. Then Memorial Day the band will be playing for the festivities in Whittemore.

Other summer highlights include the CYO softball and baseball tournaments the first weekend in June. Throughout the summer many high school students will also be helping out with art, STEM, music, and bible camps for younger kids.

Baseball and softball playoffs are the first two weeks of July, and there’s a Catholic leadership conference at Garrigan July 12th and 13th. Fall sports practices start on August 7, and practice for the musical starts August 17.The first day of school will be Wednesday, August 23rd. There’s volleyball and cross country on Thursday the 24th, and the first football game of the year is Friday, August 25th.

That wraps up the “Bear Facts” for this school year. We want to thank KLGA for airing our show for the past thirty-one years and all the sponsors who support it. Thanks also to our faculty sponsor Mr. David Burrow and to the people who have donated equipment to help us produce the show.

We also thank all of you for tuning in each week. We hope to be back on the air Saturday, August 26th, bringing you more of the news from Bishop Garrigan High School.