THE BEAR FACTS
November 20, 2021

 

Good morning! I’m Meredith Tigges!

I’m Ella Muller!

And I’m Veronica Capesius! You’re listening to the “Bear Facts”. Happy Thanksgiving from everyone here at Bishop Garrigan High School.

Last weekend Garrigan hosted the Top of Iowa Conference quiz bowl tournament. While Mason City Newman ended up taking the championship, there was some good news for us as well. The Bears had two teams entered in the tournament, and both of them made playoffs. The team of Ben Greteman, Sam Plathe, Brendan Plathe, Benjy Trainer and Nathaniel Darling finished in third place overall; while Xander Darling, Ava Eisenbarth, Mya Kemna, and Garrett Heying ended up fourth.

There’s more quiz bowl action today. Five Golden Bears are down in Waukee for the Iowa Quiz Bowl League Fall Open. Xander Darling, Marguerite Fakler, Gavin Swift, Lauren Swift, and Nathaniel Darling will be competing for the Bears. They’ll play seven rounds of questions and answers facing mostly large schools from the Des Moines area. Good luck, quiz bowl!

At our school mass last Tuesday nine seniors were commissioned as Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion. Meredith Tigges, Ella Muller, Annie Burns, Mya Kemna, Katelyn Cink, Riley Rosenmeyer, Lexi Galligan, Lillee Deike, and Marguerite Fakler will serve as eucharistic ministers at school and parish masses. Congratulations to them!
Next week is Thanksgiving, and every year on the day before Thanksgiving we have a special mass at Garrigan honoring those who have died among our alumni. More than 300 graduates will be remembered at this year’s memorial mass. They span the years from the school’s first graduating class in 1960 all the way into the 21st Century.

The mass for deceased alumni this year will be next Wednesday morning at 9:00. This mass is always held in the Friedmann Auditorium at Garrigan, and it’s just about the biggest religious service we have as a school. Students from both Seton and Garrigan will be there, and we expect many family members of those who are being remembered. As is true at all our school masses, the general public is also welcome.

A big part of Thanksgiving in Algona is the Stuff the Trailer drive that’s held each year to help out the Kossuth County Food Pantry. We at Garrigan helped out with that event. Students brought in food as part of an out-of-uniform day we had this past week. We managed to fill many large boxes with our donations—one of several food drives we have throughout the year.

Last week seven Garrigan students performed as part of the Top of Iowa Conference honor band. While the event was held over at NIACC in Mason City, this year Garrigan band director Katherine Weimers was in charge of organizing it. The students who performed were divided into different bands, and it was the students who introduced the different pieces.

The students honored include seniors Meredith Tigges, Xander Darling, and Marguerite Fakler; juniors Joey Doerning and Benjy Trainer; sophomore Ethan Kuper; and freshman Molly Peterson. They played a wide range of music—from marches to salsa. Among their favorite pieces were a song called “Prairie Portrait” and another called “Full Throttle” that mimicked the sound of race cars.


The Golden Bear danz squad has been very busy this fall preparing for the Iowa Dance and Drill Team State Championships. State dance will be held the week after Thanksgiving at Wells—Fargo Arena in Des Moines. All of Garrigan’s entries will compete on Wednesday, December 1st. The danz squad will compete with their kick routine at 10:22am and with their pom routine at 3pm.

Three Golden Bear dancers will also be entering solo performances. The solo competition will be at 11:30am, and Avery Lichter, Ella Schaaf, and Lillee Deike will all be competing for the Bears. Those three will also be part of the group routines, as will Katelyn Cink, Meredith Illg, Riley Rosenmeyer, Emma Bacha, and Avery Berte.

Other dancers competing at state include Ava Kemna, Violet Bode, and Kyra Deike, plus Ellie Rosenmeyer, Eva Snyder, and Zoey Von Bank. Ashley Meyer and Katie Warrington are the dance coaches at BGHS. All the competition is Wednesday, December 1st in Des Moines. Good luck to the Golden Bear danz squad as they compete at state!

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Emma Grandgenett. Here to tell you about her is Mya Kemna.

With basketball season about to start, it’s appropriate to feature Emma Grandgenett. She’s been to state basketball twice, and she’s hoping to head back this winter. Emma has also run at state track, she plays volleyball, and she’s a senior class co-president. She’s also in speech, and she’s on the tech crew for plays and musicals at Garrigan. Emma wants to go to the University of Iowa next year, and we wish her good luck—both in basketball season and in her future.

Thanks, Mya. Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, we’ve got two weeks of events on our Golden Bear calendar. It starts today, with quiz bowl down in Waukee.

Monday night the boys basketball team will host a pride scrimmage with Graettinger Terrill Ruthven Ayrshire. We’ll have parish busing Tuesday afternoon and all day Wednesday, because the Algona Community Schools are beginning their holiday early.

Wednesday at 9am we’ll have the deceased alumni memorial mass in Friedmann Auditorium. We’ll dismiss at 1:30 that afternoon for the Thanksgiving holiday.

There’s no school next Thursday or Friday. Then on Saturday the girls basketball team will begin their season by taking on Class 5-A Iowa City West at Coe College in Cedar Rapids.

Advent begins on Sunday the 26th, and we’ll begin the day Monday with an Advent prayer service. That night the boys basketball team will host Fort Dodge St. Edmond.

Tuesday, November 30, there’s a basketball quad, with the Bears hosting Belmond Klemme. Then on Wednesday, December 1, there’s state dance in Des Moines.

There’s a basketball quad at Mason City Newman on Thursday, December 2. Finally on Friday the 3rd the quiz bowl team will participate in the winter 3—2—1 online contest.

That’s the “Bear Facts” for November. We’ll be off next week because of the Thanksgiving holiday, but be sure to join us again two weeks from now for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.