Good morning, everybody! I’m Steven Kellner!
I’m Andrea Schiltz!
And I’m David Murphy! Welcome again to the “Bear Facts”, the weekly radio show from Bishop Garrigan High School.
Today Garrigan is scheduled to host one of the biggest events of the year—the Iowa High School Speech Association District Individual Contest. There are about 300 students from all over the area entered in the contest, coming from as far away as Estherville, Spencer, and Laurens, as well as nearby places like West Bend/Mallard, Twin River Valley, North Kossuth, and Algona High. All together twenty-four schools will be sending speech students to Garrigan today.
Because of today’s nasty weather forecast, already on yesterday the speech contest was postponed with a two-hour late start. That means that if the weather holds out, the first events should be getting underway at Garrigan this morning at 10:00. The contest will be continuing throughout the day, with events scheduled up until around 6:00 tonight. We’ll fill you in on the outcome of the speech contest next week on the “Bear Facts”.
The Golden Bear boys’ basketball team has been showing their stuff in play-offs. The Bears raced past West Hancock last Monday, and then on Thursday they beat Emmetsburg in a hard-fought battle. That means that next Tuesday they’ll be playing Garner-Hayfield for the district championship. The Bears narrowly lost to Garner earlier this year, but all season long they’ve shown they can play with the best; so we know it will be a close game next Tuesday. The game will be at Forest City High School, and we wish the Bears the best of luck as they play for the district crown.
Many of those basketball players are among the students who are taking courses for college credit while they are still in high school. Because of Iowa’s Postsecondary Option Program, high school juniors and seniors can start off their college career for free. By the time they graduate, nearly half of the Class of 2001 will have college credit on their records—mostly from courses offered at the Algona Center of Iowa Lakes Community College.
Some of the most popular courses are taught by Garrigan’s own instructors. Math teachers David Burrow and Daryl Kohlhaas teach Statistics and Math for General Education at Iowa Lakes, nearly twenty BGHS students are enrolled in those two courses. Science teacher Tom Froehlich teaches another popular college course, Human Anatomy. Other popular courses include English Composition, Speech, and a wide variety of health courses—ranging from Medical Terminology to Emergency Medical Technician certification.
The annual BGHS pops concert is just around the corner. To avoid conflicts with basketball tournaments, this year’s pops schedule was moved up a couple of weeks from its traditional schedule in March. The pops concert theme this year is “Class Reunion”, and you’ll be hearing favorites from the ‘60s and ‘70s like “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “Jesus Christ, Superstar”. The pops concert will be Thursday and Friday nights at 7:30 right here in the Garrigan gym.
On our Senior Spotlight this week, we’re saluting three different students: Josh Hanig, Lee Vaske, and D.J. VonBank. You probably know Josh Hanig best as a basketball player. He’s also active in baseball golf. Josh is well-known for his Mediterrenean complexion, and when he’s not at Garrigan you might see him working at Fareway. He’s looking at going to Iowa State or St. Thomas next year. Good luck, Josh!
Lee Vaske is the tallest member of the Class of 2001. He enjoys school, but he’s looking forward to graduation in the spring. Lee is a Bancroft native who does agricultural work when he’s not at school. He’ll be off to college next year, and we wish him all the best.
According to fellow senior Steven Courtney, D.J. VonBank is in love with Fareway. Donald John was one of the managers for the Golden Bear football team. Next year this Algona native will be studying management at Kirkwood Community College. We wish D.J. the very best of luck in the future.
On this week’s Golden Bear calendar, there’s the district speech contest today. We remind you again that due to the weather, the contest is pushed back two hours. Then tomorrow intramurals resume.
Monday we’ll have parent-teacher conferences. Garrigan’s conferences will be from 3:30 to 6:30 at the Rochleau Center at St. Cecelia’s.
Tuesday night the Bears will be taking on the Garner Hayfield Cardinals for the district basketball championship. The game will be at 7:00 at Forest City High School.
Wednesday we’ll have Ash Wednesday services. That night parent-teacher conferences continue. Then Thursday it’s time for Pops Concert 2001.
There’s no school at Garrigan or Seton next Friday, although Algona Community Schools will be in session. Then Friday night there’s the encore performance of the pops concert.
That’s the “Bear Facts” for February. Thanks for listening, and be sure to join us again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.
