The Bear Facts
January 21, 2012
Good morning! I’m Austin Salz!
I’m John Richter!
And I’m Craig Kohlhaas! You’re listening to the “Bear Facts”, KLGA’s weekly radio show from Bishop Garrigan High School.
For the past twenty years the Bishop Garrigan quiz bowl team has been one of the top academic teams in the Midwest, and it doesn’t look like that success will be stopping any time soon. Last Saturday the Golden Bears continued their winning tradition by taking both first and fourth places at the Twin Lakes Scholastic Festival held at Sioux Central High School.
It was three freshmen and a sophomore that took the first place medals. They went head to head with juniors and seniors and won the overall championship. Levi Bernhard, Hannah Bernhard, Zachary Kollasch, and Tony Kollasch qualified Bishop Garrigan to make the school’s thirteenth trip to the National Academic Championships. The quiz bowl team is already planning a return trip to nationals, which would be June 9 – 11 in Chicago.
A second Garrigan team was also undefeated in their preliminary games. Seniors John Richter and Rachel Berte and juniors Allison Frideres, Grace Steil, and Matthew Fakler took home medals for finishing in fourth place overall in the tournament. Congratulations to the quiz bowl team for continuing their winning ways.
Today the spotlight shines on the Golden Bear speech team. Several students are across town at Algona High today for the Iowa High School Speech Association district large group contest. Garrigan has students competing in readers theatre, ensemble acting, group mime, short film, group improvisation, and musical theatre.
Students competing today include Jenny Broesder, Levi Bernhard, Andrea Altman, Janet Kenyon, Rachel Berte, Nick Bronk, Erica Carlson, and Alissa Kirsch; together with Shawn Vaske, Philip Detrick, Alex Matthews, Neal Koob, Amelia Golwitzer, Matthew Fakler, Lizzy Hohmeister, Jake Hamilton, Logan Kumm, Makayla Foertsch, and Hannah Boisjolie.
Also competing in speech today are Taylor Hovey, Anna Hohmeister, Melanie Mergen, Corey Weydert, Sean Hart, Austin Salz, Craig Kohlhaas, and Sam Evers; plus Morgan Frideres, Betty Straub, Christian Matthews, Mark Fakler, Emily Berte, Amanda Altman, and Taylor Illg. Best wishes to Coaches Mary McCall and David Burrow and all the group speech competiors. Break a leg, everybody!
Last Wednesday sixteen Garrigan band students went to Storm Lake for the Sioux City Diocese Honor Band. Honorees from Garrigan included Austin Salz, Grace Steil, Melanie Mergen, Levi Bernhard, and Betty Straub; as well as Brittany Kirsch, Hannah Bernhard, Philip Detrick, Amelia Golwitzer, and Nick Bronk. Also honored were Corey Weydert, Dustin Miller, Mark Fakler, Shawn Vaske, Jake Hamilton, and Jenny Broesder. Congratulations to Director Ken Ferjak and all the band honorees!
Again this year Bishop Garrigan is participating in the Healthy Kids Iowa Initiative, a plan to increase wellness in students all across the state. Seton Grade School is joining us this year. Organizing the three-month-long event are Wellness Committee members Daniel Gelhaus, Sheridan Berte, Grant Reding, Aubrie Meyers, Jake Kollasch, and Nicole Behr, together with health teacher Jeanne Wunder.
This week’s Senior Spotlight shines on Zach Keith. Here to tell you about him is Alex Boisjolie.
Zach Keith is one of the most competitive students at Garrigan. This Algona native is a year-round athlete, who plays hard in football, baseball, and track. He’s also a good at basketball, where he recently broke the school record for most steals in a game. Outside of sports, Zach has been active in publications, and he also designs pages for the school website. He’ll be off to college in the fall, and we wish him good luck in the future.
Thanks, Alex. On this week’s Golden Bear calendar, there’s district large group speech contest today at Algona High. Then tomorrow intramural basketball continues.
Monday there’s a prayer service scheduled at Garrigan. Tuesday night there’s a basketball quad, with the Bears hosting Clear Lake. Then Wednesday and Thursday the seniors will be gone for their class retreat in Cedar Falls.
Thursday night the freshman basketball teams play West Hancock at Britt. Then next Friday the varsity Bears host Hampton—Dumont.
Next Saturday the quiz bowl team will get up early to leave for a tournament at Sioux City Heelan. Finally that night the varsity basketball teams will take on Garner—Hayfield.
That’s the “Bear Facts” for this week. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to listen next week when we’ll be back to tell you all the events of Catholic Schools Week here at Bishop Garrigan High School.
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