The Bear Facts
October 22, 2016

Good morning! I’m Miranda Book!

I’m Caitlin Thilges!

And I’m Megan Wadle! Welcome once again to the “Bear Facts”, the weekly radio show from Bishop Garrigan High School.

This morning fourteen Garrigan students are over in Storm Lake, where they’re auditioning for the All-State Music Festival. Sophomore Jordan Hansen is auditioning to be part of the all-state band; while Sam Trainer, Eric Thul, Amanda Miller, Megan Bronk, Layah DeLange, Ashlyn Harrington, Gabe Trainer, Sam Vaske, Caitlin Thilges, Bryce Capesius, Isabelle Davis, and Levi Capesius are all auditioning for spots in the all-state choir.

All-state auditions involve performing music. Jordan will be playing two clarinet etudes, and the vocal auditioners will sing songs that will be part of the all-state festival. The songs include a Hatian Creole dancing song, and a German song by Brahms. There’s also Handel’s “Your Voices Tune”, a piece called “In Pace” that was written for monks to sing in a monastery, and a spiritual called “Ezekiel”.

The all-state music also includes a mystery piece that will be learned by all members who are accepted to the all-state festival, plus traditional arrangements of “America, the Beautiful” and “Battle Hymn of the Republic”. Good luck to all fourteen Garrigan students who are auditioning for the all-state music festival!

Last Tuesday the Golden Bear volleyball team began their playoff run. The girls lost the first two sets against the North Iowa Bison 16 – 25 and 21 – 25. They came back to win the third set 25 – 21, and then they won two more hard-fought sets 25 – 16 and 15 – 10.

The win advances the girls to the second round of regionals. They’ll be traveling to West Bend Mallard Monday night to take on the Wolverines. If they win Monday, the third round would be Thursday night at Ft. Dodge St. Edmond. Good luck all through regionals, Golden Bear volleyball!

The Golden Bear football team wrapped up their second straight undefeated regular season last night, and next Friday they’ll be hosting the first round of football playoffs. The Bears have been highly rated all season long, with an extremely tough defense and a good running game on offense. We wish the football team good luck all through playoffs!

Each week we have a student mass at Garrigan. Most of the time our masses are at St. Cecelia’s, and sometimes they’re held in Friedmann Auditorium at school. Last week, though, we had a special mass celebrated at St. Benedict. This will be the final opportunity for the whole student body to go to St. Benedict, because the small rural church is slated to close next year.

Fr. Peter Nguyen said mass for the students, and he challenged us to treat each other well and to listen to the plans God has for us. The St. Benedict mass is a series that will eventually take us to all the parishes that send students to Garrigan.

Last week the Golden Bear quiz bowl team began their season by hosting Iowa’s largest academic tournament. Garrigan’s top team made playoffs at the tournament. They ended up losing to Ankeny to take ninth place out of forty-eight teams competing. Levi Capesius, Mark Mather, Ben Degen, and Samantha Harrington made up the playoff team. Congratulations to them.

There’s more quiz bowl action today. Ben Degen, Logan Heying, Tommy Kollasch, Drew Hansen, and Sam Harrington are in Ankeny this morning for the Centennial High School Scholastic Bowl. It’s mostly large schools from the Des Moines area that compete in this tournament, but the Bears are hoping to do as well as they can. Good luck, quiz bowl!

With football playoffs coming, our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Gibson Behr. Gibson won offensive player of the year honors in football as a junior, and as a senior he broke the school record for most yards rushing in a game. He’s received all-conference honors in basketball and will also be a four-year letterwinner in track. Gibson will be headed off to college next year, and he’d like a career in real estate or insurance. We wish him the best of luck in football playoffs and in his future.

On this week’s Golden Bear calendar, there’s all-state music auditions today in Storm Lake, and the quiz bowl team is playing at Ankeny. Also today Garrigan is one of the host sites for the Algona Autumn-Fest Craft Show.

Monday is the second round of regional volleyball, with the Bears traveling to West Bend to take on the Wolverines. Then on Tuesday we’ll have the honor society induction.

There’s mass on Wednesday morning, and we’ll have more parent—teacher conferences that night. Then on Thursday we hope the volleyball team is playing in the third round of regionals.

We’ll have a school rosary next Friday. Then that night we’ll be hosting the first round of the Class A football playoffs.

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.