The Bear Facts
September 20, 2025


Good morning! I’m Kayden Graves!

I’m Aubrey Meyer!

And I’m Alyssa Haugland! Welcome to another episode of the “Bear Facts”, the weekly radio update from Bishop Garrigan High School.

Last Wednesday we didn’t have normal classes at Garrigan. Instead we headed over to West Bend for a special pilgrimage at the Grotto of the Redemption. 2025 has been declared a jubilee year in the Catholic church, and Catholics can receive special blessings by making pilgrimages to the Vatican or to various shrines around the world. One of those is the West Bend grotto, and students from Bishop Garrigan and Ft. Dodge St. Edmond joined together on a special pilgrimage.

The day began with Bishop John Keehner saying mass for the group. We also heard the history of the grotto before getting tours of its beautiful stone artwork. We also heard a presentation on vocations, we participated in Eucharistic adoration, and eight different priests were available for the sacrament of reconciliation. It was a full day of activities that helped us grow in our faith.

On last week’s show we reviewed most of the activities from Homecoming week. At the end of the week we finished the class competition. The junior class won the lip sync contest, but when all the events were totaled up, the overall winners were the seniors. Congratulations to the Class of 2026, and thanks to everyone who helped make Homecoming a great time for everyone.

Again this season the Golden Bear cheerleaders have been doing jumping jacks to match the scoreboard each time the football team scores a touchdown. They got a lot of exercise when the Bears racked up 70 points against North Iowa last week. Last night they went over 900 total jumping jacks—and that’s just halfway through the regular season.

We’ve already saluted the success of our Golden Bear football team a couple of times on the “Bear Facts”. In addition to the varsity team, the JV Bears have also been having an awesome season. Today we’re going to mention the JV football players that we didn’t mention with the varsity team earlier this season. The sophomores include frequent varsity players C.J. McGregor, Karson Kramer, Titan Troyer, Carter Cink, and Gage Meyer.

Other sophomore football players are Henry Bode, Jacob Reding, Woody Wells, Brad Meister, Hayden Miller, Sean Thilges, Noah Schafer, and Elson Roethler. Joining them are freshmen Jared Graves. Jack Muller, Wyatt Schafer, and Noah Wehrspahn. Good luck in the rest of the season to all the J.V. Bears!

Last Monday the Golden Bear cross-country team ran in the Emmetsburg Invitational at Iowa Lakes Community College. Sophomore Julia Swift earned the second place medal in the girls race, while freshman Caden Buckner finished eighth overall on the boys side. The Bears’ next two meets are also close to home. This Monday they’ll be running at Humboldt, and the following week is the Algona Invitational. Go, cross-country!

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Amaury Thomas. Here to tell you about him is Haley Reutzel.



Amaury Thomas is probably best known for his skills on the basketball court. He’s also been to state as a thrower in track. Amaury also loves choir. He’s in jazz choir, and he’s among the students auditioning for all-state this fall. He’s also been in plays and musicals—both at school and in community theatre—and he’s been part of the quiz bowl team. Amaury plans to major in accounting in college, and we wish him the best of luck in the future.

Thanks, Haley! On our Golden Bear calendar this week, the volleyball team is playing in the CYO tournament at LeMars Gehlen. There’s also a swim meet in Ft. Dodge and a JV volleyball tournament at Algona High.

There’s no school at Garrigan and Seton on Monday because teachers from all over the Sioux City Diocese will have a special meeting in Carroll. Monday night the cross-country team runs at Humboldt and the JV football team hosts GTRA.

The volleyball team hosts North Iowa on Tuesday, and there’s also a swim meet at Spencer that night. We’ll have mass on Wednesday, and the seniors have a meeting that day to learn about graduation plans.

Next Friday all the freshmen and many art students will be making a trip to the Twin Cities for the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. Friday night the Golden Bear football team will host Turkey Valley, a team they haven’t played in more than a decade.

The cheerleaders will host a soup supper at next Friday’s game. Finally next Saturday the volleyball team will be hosting the Bishop Garrigan Invitational Tournament.

That’s another week of the “Bear Facts”. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to catch the show again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.

Carley Nielson: It’s a great day to be a Bear! Bye!