The Bear Facts

November 23, 2024

Good morning! I’m Sacha Alesch!

I’m Kayden Graves!\And I’m Spencer Doerning! Thanks for joining us for the “Bear Facts”. Happy Thanksgiving from everyone here at Bishop Garrigan High School.

A longtime tradition at Garrigan is our annual memorial mass, where we remember all the alumni who have died. There are more than 400 deceased alumni now, and the list grows each year—particularly since the first Garrigan graduates are now around 80 years old. This year’s memorial mass will be next Wednesday, November 27, at 9am in Friedmann Auditorium. The public is invited, and there will be refreshments and a time for family members to visit after the service.

Each year Bishop Garrigan helps out with the Stuff the Trailer event that provides food and money for the Kossuth County Food Pantry. This year we had a food drive at Garrigan that filled the trailer we take to school events. We also raised over $1500 in cash. Garrigan students also went out to AK’s Chrome Kitchen to help load donations other people brought in. Use of the food pantry is now at historic levels, so we’re pleased to be able to offer whatever help we can.

Last weekend Bishop Garrigan hosted the Top of Iowa Conference quiz bowl tournament. It was a good day for the Bears. The team of Sam Greteman, Tate Foertsch, Amaury Thomas, and Thadd Kollasch was undefeated in preliminary rounds, racking up more than 900 points in the morning. They eventually fell to Mason City Newman to take second place overall in the conference. Congratulations, quiz bowl!

The all-district football honorees were announced this past week for 8-man district 2. We’re proud that the Golden Bears had fourteen players on the list. Ethan Marso was named defensive MVP for the district. Nine other Bears won first team all-district honors: Tate Foertsch at quarterback; Trayton Cink at running back; Carter Schwab on the offensive line; Keaton Helleseth and Wyatt Rosenmeyer on the defensive line; Andrew Lichter at defensive utility; Michael Joyce at defensive back; Brady Galligan at kicker; and Owen Murphy at punt return.

Four Golden Bears won second team honors. They were Kayden Graves and Nate Leerar on the offensive line, Carter McGregor on defensive line; and Madden Miller at defensive utility. In addition to the players, John Kesselring and Brian Patterson were named assistant coaches of the year. Congratulations to the Golden Bears on dominating the all-district awards.

While football is over for the year, practices have started for winter sports. Both the boys and girls basketball teams are looking for good years. The boys return seniors Trayton Cink, Nick Leerar, Drew Muller, and Dan Meis, as well as manager Thadd Kollasch. Returning juniors are Carter Schawb, Amaury Thomas, and Tate Foertsch. The sophomores include returning starter Michael Joyce, as well as Milo Geving, Nathan Leerar, Madden Miller, Weston Rosenmeyer, and Karson Sidles.

There are also twelve freshman boys out for basketball this year. They include Sean Thilges, Elson Roethler, Bryden Morse, Hayden Miller, Gage Meyer, Brad Meister, Karson Kramer, Titan Troyer, Woodrow Wells, Carter Cink, Nolan Antoine, and Henry Bode.

Girls basketball is coming off a string of great years, and they’re hoping for another great season. Zoe Montag is the lone returning senior, but there are six juniors who return for the Bears—Sacha Alesh, Emmi Bartolo, Alyssa Haugland, Haley Nemmers, Carley Nielson, and Ava Roethler. The team will also feature sophomores Gracelyn Eastman, Shiloh Trainer, and Bree Ludwig; as well as freshmen Madelyn Tigges, Jenna Peterson, Lilly Wickman, Addyson Faris,  and Brooklyn Berte. Good luck, Golden Bear basketball!

Our Senior Spotlight for Thanksgiving shines on Keaton Helleseth. Here to tell you about him is Scott Bormann.

Keaton Helleseth was one of the all-district football players we mentioned earlier. He’s one of the top defensive players in the state, particularly when it comes to quarterback sacks. Keaton is a West Bend native who also plays third base for the Golden Bear baseball team and also serves as a eucharistic minister. He says his favorite class is Guitar, and away from school he enjoys hunting. Keaton plans to major in construction management at college, and we wish him all the best in the future.

Thanks, Scott. We’ll be looking at two weeks on our Golden Bear calendar because of the Thanksgiving holiday, but it’s a pretty light couple of weeks. There’s nothing at all on the calendar this weekend.

Tuesday and Wednesday we’ll have parish busing at Garrigan because the Algona Community Schools get out early for Thanksgiving vacation. Tuesday night the Golden Bear girls basketball team opens their season at Ft. Dodge St. Edmond.

There’s also a boys basketball jamboree at St. Ansgar on Tuesday. Wednesday morning we’ll have the deceased alumni mass, and then we dismiss at 1:30 Wednesday afternoon.

There’s no school activities Thursday, Friday, or Saturday because of the Thanksgiving holiday. Sunday, December 1st is the beginning of Advent, and the football team will have their awards banquet that afternoon.

We’ll begin the day on Monday the 2nd with an Advent prayer service. The boys basketball team plays at St. Ed’s that night. Then on Tuesday the 3rd there’s a basketball quad at Belmond.

Also on the 3rd boys swim season begins with a meet at Spencer and another meet at Mason City on Thursday the 5th. State dance will be December 4 – 6 in Des Moines.

The JJV basketball team will host Emmetsburg on December 5. We’ll have meal packaging at Garrigan on Friday the 6th, and then on December 7th there’s quiz bowl at Spirit Lake.

That’s the “Bear Facts” for November. We’ll be off next week because of Thanksgiving, but be sure to tune in again two weeks from now for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.