The Bear Facts

March 21, 2026

Good morning! I’m Tate Foertsch!

I’m Kayden Graves!

And I’m Emmi Bartolo! Welcome to another weekly episode of the “Bear Facts”, the radio show where we bring you the news from Bishop Garrigan High School.

Last Saturday the state individual speech contest was held over in Denison. The number of entries Garrigan had in speech was down this year, mostly due to basketball playoffs. The students we had at state did as well as they could have, though. Both Alice Casey and Eva Kohlhaas performed in the storytelling category, and both of them received straight Division 1 or “excellent” ratings from all three of their judges. Congratulations to Eva and Alice, and to coaches David Burrow and Renetta Seiler.

For much of the past week about half of Garrigan’s students escaped the snow and ice with a trip to Florida. The band and choir have been down in Orlando this past week. They’ve seen all the sights in central Florida, performed at Universal City Walk, and been part of a special seminar to learn about how sound and special effects are added to enhance movies. The group will be flying back tomorrow after a busy time down south.

After an outstanding winter sports season, the Golden Bear track teams are into the spring grind. Some members of the girls track team have already participated in indoor meets, and everyone has been working hard at practices. The girls team features returning seniors Ava Roethler, Haley Nemmers, Alyssa Haugland, and Rosanne Curtis—Ricke.

Ava ran at the state track meet last spring, as did Julia Swift, Madelyn Tigges, Cate Birkey, and Jenna Peterson. Others returning to the girls track team are juniors Eva Kohlhaas, Bree Ludwig, and Shiloh Trainer; and sophomores Brooklyn Berte and Kiah Villarreal. Freshmen in track include Anaya Thomas, Piper Roethler, Rikiya Nielson, Emma Kollasch, Rachel Kahle, Avery Culbertson, Ava Besch, and Addie Bartolo. Good luck, girls track!

On the boys’ side seniors Amaury Thomas, Carter McGregor, and Tate Foertsch were also at the state meet last spring, as was sophomore C.J. McGregor. Other returning seniors are Lucas Behounek, Kyle Bormann, and Carter Schwab. Juniors include Matt Besch, Nate Leerar, Leo Snyder, and Dalton Klenz.

Other sophomores in boys track are Titan Troyer, Henry Bode, Carter Cink, Sean Thilges, Noah Schafer, Karson Kramer, and Brad Meister. Rounding out the group are freshmen Jack Muller and Caiden Buckner. Good luck all season long to the track team!

More than twenty people have signed up for the Golden Bear golf team this year, including sophomore Gabby Buscher, who placed 12th at state last year. Other girls in golf are Adrienne Kuper, Lucy Eisenbarth, Hailee Reutzel, Sheila Reding, Kylie Capesius, Graclyn Eastman, Addison Kuper, and Ava Snider.

On the boys’ side, those signed up for golf include seniors Carter Schwab and Tate Foertsch; as well as Weston Ehlers, Max Buscher, Noah Wehrspan, Woodrow Wells, and Magnus Lichter. Others in golf are Gavin Rogers, Joey Lallier, Nate Leerar, Michael Joyce, and Carter Cink. Good luck all season long, golfers!

Gala 2026 is next weekend. The preview party will be Friday at 5pm, and the main event is Saturday night. This is the 37th year for Gala, which continues to be the school’s largest fundraiser. Last year the event brought in $448,000. The theme for 2026 is “Gala Gone Tropical”, and guests will be greeted by a lawn full of pink flamingos. We’ll tell you more about gala on next week’s show.

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Ian Roethler. Here to tell you about him is Ava Snider.

Ian Roethler comes to Garrigan from the West Bend area. While he’s not active in a lot of school activities, he likes to support his fellow Golden Bears. He enjoys the E.C.E. program that gives him work experience outside of school, and he’ll also have college credit under his belt before graduating. Away from school, Ian enjoys farming, and in the future he’s like to work at K.C. Nielsen. We wish Ian all the best in the future.

Thanks, Ava. On our Golden Bear calendar, the music trip continues today, and the group will return home tomorrow. Wednesday we’ll have a Lenten reconciliation service.

Thursday the school board meets. Also on Thursday, we’ll have training for all the students who will be servers at Gala. The Gala preview party is at 5:00 Friday night, and Gala itself will be nxt Saturday night.

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