The Bear Facts
February 22, 2025
Good morning! I’m Thadd Kollasch!
I’m Spencer Doerning!
And I’m Scott Bormann! Welcome once again to the “Bear Facts”, the weekly radio update from Bishop Garrigan High School.
Last weekend Garrigan’s DECA team was down in the Des Moines area for the state DECA competition. Lots of entries did well, but three were good enough to advance to nationals. Brooke Ludwig finished first in the state in Hotel and Lodging Management, and the team of Sam Greteman and Thadd Kollasch finished in third place with their entry in Sports and Entertainment Marketing. Molly Peterson will also be headed to nationals as an alternate.
Other DECA entries that brought home medals and certificates include the team of Brooke Ludwig and Molly Peterson in Buying and Merchandising Operations, Harper Nelson and Shiloh Trainer also in Buying and Merchandising, Max Buscher and Joey Lallier in Marketing Management, and Molly Peterson in Marketing Communications. Brooke Ludwig and Molly Peterson also received the Most Outstanding Member award.
National DECA will be held April 26 – 29 in Orlando, Florida, and Sam, Thadd, Brooke, and Molly all plan on attending. Congratulations to them and to all twenty-five of the Garrigan students who competed at state. DECA sponsor Alex Schwing says he is especially proud of the showing made by the first-year members.
Last weekend the Algona Bulldog wrestlers won the district championship and advanced eleven wrestlers to the state wrestling tournament. Three of those were Bishop Garrigan students. Junior Carter McGregor won the individual district championship at 165 pounds, while freshmen Teague Alesch and C.J. McGregor qualified for state at 106 and 132 pounds respectively. Congratulations, wrestlers!
Tomorrow the Golden Bear danz squad will have their end-of-season showcase. This exciting afternoon of dance will be from 2 – 4pm in the Garrigan gym. Bishop Garrigan will perform their award-winning state pom routine and all the routines they performed at basketball games throughout the season, including the coed and friends dances. Algona High’s dancers will also perform their state pom routine, and you can see dancers from area studios as well.
This year’s danz squad includes Rosanne Curtis—Ricker, Cora Deardeuff, Delaney Fessler-Arndorfer, Ava Snider, Harper Nelson, and Aubrey Meyer; as well as Addison Laubenthal, Stormi Larson, Jayden Deike, Kylie Capesius, and Shiloh Trainer. Ashley Meyer and Ashley Frideres are the dance coaches. Be sure to see the dance showcase tomorrow from 2 – 4.
The annual Bishop Garrigan pops concert is next Friday. This year’s show has a fairy tale theme. You can hear music from shows like Frozen, Lord of the Rings, Wicked, and How to Train Your Dragon. There are eight soloists and duets, plus a show choir routine and the jazz choir accompanied by Fr. Zach on drums. Free popcorn will be provided, so be sure to catch the pops concert next Friday at 7pm.
Practices are underway for individual speech. This year Eva Kohlhaas is entered in Storytelling and Prose, Isabella Waechter is in Musical Theatre and Prose, and Shiloh Trainer is in Improvisation and Musical Theatre. Molly Peterson is entered in Reviewing, Sacha Alesch is in Musical Theatre, and Tate Foertsch will be competing in Radio News Announcing. District contest is next Saturday in Ft. Dodge, and we’re hoping lots of entries advance to state, which will be March 15 at Woodbury Central.
The Bishop Garrigan student website – bggoldenbears.org – has been online for thirty years now. The site was first created by Tim Mosbach, who went on to a career in computer science. For three decades now the site has been maintained by students under the direction of Mr. David Burrow. This spring Keegan Berte, Ethan Marso, Kyle Bormann, Carter Schwab, Mitchell Marso, Miles Denker, and Garrison Winkelman are working on the site. You can check out their work at bggoldenbears.org.
Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Wyatt Rosenmeyer. Here to tell you about him is Izzy Waechter.
February is FFA Month, and Wyatt Rosenmeyer is the one Garrigan senior who is part of FFA. He’s been to state twice in football, and he’s also active in trapshooting. Wyatt plans to attend Kirkwood next year, and we wish him all the best after high school. Good luck, Wyatt!
Thanks, Izzy. On our Golden Bear calendar this week, state wrestling wraps up today in Des Moines. Tomorrow at 2pm is the end-of-season dance showcase. Then on Monday the quiz bowl team will have the knowledge master, which was postponed twice due to weather.
Tuesday we’ll have parish busing at Garrigan. That night is the boys basketball district final. Then on Wednesday the girls play their regional final for the right to go to state. There’s a student mass Wednesday morning. Thursday and Friday we again have parish busing, and Friday night is the annual pops concert. Finally next Saturday there’s district speech in Ft. Dodge and the boys substate basketball game.
That’s the “Bear Facts” for February. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to catch the show again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.