The Bear Facts
February 23, 2013
Good morning! I’m Allison Frideres!
And I’m Grace Steil! Thanks for joining us here on the “Bear Facts”, the weekly radio show where we keep you in touch with all the news from Bishop Garrigan High School.
Today BGHS is hosting the Iowa High School Speech Association district individual speech contest. In many parts of the state it’s hard to find schools that are willing to host speech contests, but here in north central Iowa Garrigan has been the perennial host. This is the twenty-ninth straight year we’ve hosted district speech contest. Head coach Mary McCall is the contest manager, and income from admissions and concession sales at district contest goes to DARTS, the support group for drama, art, and speech at Garrigan.
In addition to hosting, the Bears have twenty-three different entries at today’s contest. Hannah Bernhard, Erica Carlson, and Alissa Kirsch are all competing in Poetry; while Levi Bernhard, Dorothy Kirsch, and Hannah Bernhard are entered in Prose. Melanie Mergen, Tony Kollasch, and Zach Kollasch are competing in Literary Program; and Matthew Fakler is presenting an Acting piece.
In Improvisation, Garrigan’s entries include Levi Bernhard, Matthew Fakler, and Mark Fakler. Erica Carlson, Amelia Golwitzer, and Dorothy Kirsch are all competing in Storytelling. There are Solo Musical Theatre performances from Christian Matthews, Alex Matthews, and Shawn Vaske; while Mark Fakler, Jake Hamilton, and Taylor Illg are competing in After-Dinner Speaking. The final entry is Melanie Mergen, who is competing in Radio News Announcing.
The annual pops concert is coming up next Friday. Both the band and choir have been practicing special selections for the big event. In addition to full group selections, you’ll see performances by the jazz band and show choir, as well as numerous solo and small group presentations. Pops Concert will start at 7pm next Friday, March 1st, so be sure to come over to Friedmann Auditorium for the show.
This coming week is a big one for the Golden Bear danz squad. Garrigan’s state champion dancers will be providing the halftime entertainment next Wednesday at 1:30 and 3:30 games of the girls state basketball tournament in Des Moines. Then on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday Samantha Kollasch, Anna Hohmeister, Kaitlyn Fogarty, and Makayla Foertsch will be back in Des Moines for the All-Iowa Honor Drill Team. Congratulations to these dancers on being selected for one of the highest honors in the state.
One of the biggest activities each winter is intramural basketball. Again this year the top team overall is made up of teachers and coaches. Right behind them, with an identical record and just one less overall point is a team of seniors captained by Victor Berte and Bobby Plathe. Those two teams will be meeting up tomorrow in one of the biggest games of the season. The top student scorers so far are Andrew McGuire, Corey Weydert, Elliot Boisjolie, Charlie Thilges, and Zach Kollasch.
The Golden Bear boys started out playoffs strong. After a bye in the first round, they hosted Lake Mills for their first district game. It was a close game, but the Bears opened up a good lead toward the end, thanks to some key three-pointers by David Klein. They ended up beating Lake Mills 61 – 53. Then on Tuesday the Bears held off Belmond—Klemme 69 – 68 to advance to the district final. Because of the threatening weather, we had to record this week’s show before the Bears’ game against North Iowa. We’ll let you know how the rest of playoffs went on next week’s show.
Next Tuesday night there will be a strategic planning meeting for the Bishop Garrigan Schools. Teachers, school board members, parents, students, and area business people will all be at the Rochleau Center at Seton for the event. They will discuss what’s happening at Garrigan and Seton now as well as plans for the future. Meetings like this are held each year to provide everyone in our community an opportunity for input.
For the third straight year Garrigan has joined other schools across the state in the Healthy Iowa Kids initiative, a wellness program aimed at students. Our third period classes are “teams” where we keep track of our minutes of activity and the healthy things we eat. While some people treat the program more seriously than others, it does remind us to stay healthy.
This week’s Senior Spotlight shines on Bobby Plathe. Bobby is an Algona native whose main activities are baseball and golf. He’s also captain of the top student intramural basketball team. You’ll also see Bobby cheering on his friends at almost every other school event. Bobby plans to continue his education after high school, and we wish him all the best of luck in the future.
On our Golden Bear calendar, there’s district speech contest at Garrigan today. Tonight substate basketball is scheduled to be played at Mason City High.
Intramural basketball continues tomorrow, with two big games. Then tomorrow night the Golden Bear girls basketball team will have their awards potluck.
Next Tuesday at 7pm will be the Strategic Planning Meeting at the Rochleau Center. Then Wednesday the danz squad will be performing at the girls state basketball tournament.
Next Friday night is the pops concert, and then on Saturday four Garrigan girls will perform as part of the All-Iowa Honor Drill Team in Des Moines.
That’s the “Bear Facts” for February. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to tune in again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.
