The Bear Facts
March 21, 2015

Good morning! I’m Kaitlyn Fogarty!

And I’m Reece Wadle! Thanks for joining us for the “Bear Facts”, the weekly radio update from Bishop Garrigan High School.

Last Saturday BGHS competed at the state individual speech contest in Sibley, and we ended up having just about the best day we possibly could. The Bears had thirteen entries competing at state, and all thirteen of them earned Division One or “excellent” ratings. Eleven of those events earned straight I’s from all three of the judges who evaluated them. Students earning top marks include seniors Emily Riesenberg, Hannah Bernhard, Morgan Frideres, Mark Fakler, Nick Kayser, Mariana Pacheco, and Dorothy Kirsch; sophomore Levi Capesius; and freshman Noah Buscher.

The perfect day of I’s was just the beginning, though. On Monday Coaches Mary McCall and David Burrow learned that four Bishop Garrigan events had been selected as Outstanding Performers and will be honored Monday, March 30, at the All-State Speech Festival at UNI. Hannah Bernhard was chosen for All-State for her Expository Address called “Ludicrous Laws”, while Nick Kayser was named an Outstanding Performer with his Prose selection “Girls”.

Mark Fakler earned All-State honors in two categories. He will be performing in Improvisation at the All-State Festival, and his Musical Theatre selection of “Run Freedom, Run” from Urinetown, the Musical was also named an Outstanding Performance. It’s been twenty-one years since Garrigan last had a double entry at All-State, and Mark is now the school’s most honored speech performer ever—having earned four All-State selections in high school.

After hosting their fifth community quiz bowl tournament last night, the Golden Bear quiz bowl team is busy again today. They’re down in Waukee for the regional finals of the National History Bowl competition. This is the first time Garrigan has competed in this event, which includes teams from both Iowa and Nebraska. BGHS is the smallest school in the competition, but we’re hoping their social studies skills will shine. Competing for the Bears are Tony Kollasch, Zach Kollasch, Hannah Bernhard, Taylor Illg, and Joseph Espinosa. Good luck to them and to Coach David Burrow.

Last Sunday we had the championship game in Garrigan’s intramural basketball competition. There were no surprises, with the juniors besting the seniors by a final score of 83 – 50. The winning team includes Landen Studer (who made six three-pointers in the championship game) and Cameron Langermann (who is the only player to score over 100 points for he season). Others on the championship team are Andrew Lallier, Devin Degen, Cady Steinman, Steve McCall, and Jacob Berte.

Last week we also continued the tradition of having a pickleball tournament at Garrigan. Pairs of students from both junior high and high school competed in a double-elimination format. It was a hard-fought event, and people like Jess Marlow, Tyler Schnurr, Cameron Langermann, Logan Rosenmeyer, Jenna Boelter, and Grace McGuire were all in the running. In the end, though, the winners of a jar of pickles were seniors Andrew Miller and Reece Wadle. Congratulations to them!

Reece Wadle also got another honor last week. His fellow senior honor students selected Reece to be the speaker at this spring’s commencement ceremony. At Garrigan instead of always having the #1 student or the class president speak at graduation, the top 20% of each year’s seniors vote for the speaker. Reece will deliver his speech when the Class of 2015 graduates on Mothers Day, May 10, at 2pm.

Next week the Bishop Garrigan drama department will present their spring play, A-Haunting We Will Go. The show will be next Friday and Saturday, March 27 and 28. Cast members include seniors Dorothy Kirsch, Taylor Illg, Mark Fakler, Emily Riesenberg, Hannah Bernhard, Nick Kayser, Betty Straub, and Morgan Frideres. Others in the cast are James Quinlin, Carolyn Baxter, Johanna Vaske, and Mariah Bronk; plus Sam Harrington, Andrew Thilges, Levi Capesius, Precious Robeson, Catilin Thilges, and Sam Trainer. Be sure to be there next Friday and Saturday for A-Haunting We Will Go.

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Dorothy Kirsch. Dorothy is involved in just about every activity at Garrigan except sports. She’s active in both band and choir, including a solo she sang for pops concert and as part of the warm-up entertainment for Tonic Sol-Fa. Dorothy has earned awards in speech and drama, she’ll be heading to national quiz bowl this summer, and she regularly competes with the math team. You’ve also probably heard her announcing here on “The Bear Facts”. Dorothy will be off to college next year, and we wish her all the best in the future.

On our Golden Bear calendar this week, there’s the History Bowl competition in Waukee today. Then tomorrow the girls basketball team will have their awards potluck. 

We’re between sports seasons, so next week is mostly a time for practices. The only big event during the week is a trip to the Mary’s Place mission in Minneapolis next Thursday.

Next Friday and Saturday at 7pm the curtain will go up on the BGHS spring play. Be sure to head for Freidmann Auditorium for A-Haunting We Will Go.

That’s the “Bear Facts” for this week. Thanks for tuning in, and be sure to join us again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.