THE BEAR FACTS
February 24, 2024


Good morning! I’m Tate Foertsch!

I’m Daniel Meis!

I’m Drew Muller!

And I’m Thadd Kollasch! Welcome to a special episode of the “Bear Facts”, where we’re doing some celebrating here at Bishop Garrigan High School.

Five in a row! The Golden Bear girls basketball team is headed to state for the fifth straight year. The Bears began their dynasty when the COVID pandemic first hit America, and they’ve continued it ever since. Next week the defending state champions will be headed back to Wells—Fargo yet again.

This year’s team looks different from the past. The Bears no longer have Audi Crooks (who went on to break scoring records at Iowa State) and Molly Joyce (who’s been a stand-out at Truman State University). They’ve worked hard, though, and with a dominating win over Riceville Wednesday night they showed they’re deserving of their own trip to state.

Captain Abbie Capesius has started at guard ever since she was a freshman, and this will be her fourth trip to state as a player. It’s also four trips in a row for fellow seniors Reagan Murphy and Alaina Casey. The core of the team is now younger players. Sophomore Emmi Bartolo drained some ridiculously long threes in the regional final; and junior Zoe Montag and sophomores Sacha Alesch and Alyssa Haugland have also contributed long-range shots.

Freshman Gracelyn Eastman has been a dominating force inside. Backing the starters up are Reese Kemna, Ava Roethler, Carley Nielsen, Haley Nemmers, Bree Ludwig, and Shiloh Trainer. The Bears drew the #5 seed at state. They’ll be facing Council Bluffs St. Albert in the first round next Wednesday at 3:15. A win would advance them to the state semi-finals, which are Friday afternoon at 1:30. Good luck at state, Golden Bears!

With the girls returning to state, it will be a busy week for the Golden Bear cheer squad. This year Coach Nicole Taffe has been working with Addison Kuper, Hailee Reutzel, Sophie Meraz, Allison Denker, Aubrey Meyer, Harper Nelson, Stormi Larson, Kylie Capesius, and Jaelyn Antoine. Another key part of keeping up spirit for the Bears is the Gary Bear mascot, which throughout basketball season has been Kayden Graves.

There was more success this past weekend. Garrigan’s DECA group went down to Southeast Polk for the state DECA competition, and four Garrigan students qualified for nationals. Seniors Zach Warren and Violet Bode and juniors Molly Peterson and Brooke Ludwig will be headed to the International DECA Career Development Conference, which will be in Anaheim, California at the end of April.

Several other DECA students won awards at state. Ella Schaaf was named the Most Outstanding Member. In addition to the national qualifiers, Logan Nemmers, Hailee Reutzel, Avery Lichter, Brendan Plathe, Ben Greteman, Sam Plathe, Harper Nelson, and Shiloh Trainer also received statewide awards. Congratulations, DECA!

Nine Garrigan students are over at Sioux Central High School this morning for the Iowa High School Speech Association district individual contest. Brooke Ludwig already performed her Expository Address about infant CPR, and right about now Sam Plathe is competing in Spontaneous Speaking. At 9:20 Benjy Trainer will perform an Improvisation, and at 9:40 Violet Bode will read a Prose selection that is a politically correct re-telling of “Rapunzel”.

Brendan Plathe will compete in Prose at 10am, with a piece entitled “The Man who Invented the Calendar”. At 10:20 Benjy Trainer presents a Radio News Announcing selection, and then at 10:40 Ava Hough will read the Prose piece “Chatty Cathy with a Kiss”. Violet Bode is entered in Musical Theatre at 11am, with the song “What’s Wrong with Me”.

At 11:20 Shiloh Trainer will present a Literary Program selection about skiing. Tate Foertsch presents his Radio News Announcing entry at 11:40. Then at 1:40pm Molly Peterson is entered in Reviewing with the musical composition “Sinfonia” by Bach. Finally at 2:50pm Brooke Ludwig will compete in Spontaneous Speaking. Best wishes at district to all the individual speech entries!

Because of all the state tournament news, we’re skipping our Senior Spotlight this week. On our Golden Bear calendar, there’s district individual speech contest today in Sioux Rapids.

We’ll have mass next Tuesday morning. It will be a black and gold day at school in honor of the girls basketball team. There’s parish busing in the afternoon at Garrigan and Seton, because the Algona Community Schools get out early that day.

There will be a pep rally for the state-bound Bears at 2:00 Tuesday afternoon. Cheerleaders will be decorating car windows from 3 – 5 Tuesday night. The basketball team will leave Garrigan at 9:15 Wednesday morning, and we encourage everyone to be on hand to send them off.

Because of the state tournament, there’s no school at Garrigan next Wednesday. The game will be at 3:15 Wednesday afternoon in Wells—Fargo Arena. If you can’t make it down to Des Moines, you can listen to Tyler Lance and Beany Bode calling the game here on KLGA.

There will be parish busing again Thursday afternoon. If the Bears win on Wednesday, they’ll be playing in the state semi-finals Friday afternoon. Otherwise school will be in session, with parish busing on Friday.

That’s the “Bear Facts” for February. Thanks for tuning in, and be sure to catch the show again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High school.

Go Bears!