And I’m Louie Bode! Welcome once again to the “Bear Facts”, your weekly radio up-date from Bishop Garrigan High School.
This is a very busy day at BGHS. The parking lot is full of buses this morning, and students from all over northwest Iowa are in town for the district individual speech contest of the Iowa High School Speech Association. Garrigan has a long tradition of hosting district contest; in fact we’ve been hosting the contest for longer than most of the contestants have been alive. 2000 marks the seventeenth straight year district speech contest has been right here at BGHS. This year there are 487 entries in this year’s district contest, and the schools represented come from as close as Algona and Sentral and as far away as Laurens and Sibley.
Garrigan itself has thirty entries at district contest, the largest number in more than a decade. There’s an especially strong group of Golden Bear freshmen in speech this year. They include Sarah Schmitt, Steven Kellner, Beth Becker, Rosalind Kirsch, and David Murphy. Among the older students are all-state veterans Tyler Struck and Jake Kohlhaas. Last weekend in Des Moines they and their partners Wade MacDonald, Brandon Donahe, and Corrie Stetzel all received excellent reviews for their improv depiction of “playing football for the first time”. We wish the very best to all of the speech students competing today. Break a leg, everybody!
Many of the speech students are also cast members in Garrigan’s spring play. “The World We Live In” is one of the more experimental shows we’ve put on in recent years. We asked one of the smartest people at Garrigan—freshman Steven Kellner—what the play was about, and after thinking a while he responded “I really don’t know.” The show, which will be directed by Fr. Paul Eisele and Mrs. Anne Studer, is an allegory that uses insects to help us understand our world.
Tyler Struck, who plays a vagrant, sets the scene and guides the audience through the play. Many of the other main characters are insects—including Corrie Stetzel as the yellow butterfly, Keshar Nadkarni as the white butterfly, Rachel Foth as the brown butterfly, and Sara Seeley as the red butterfly. Steve Kellner and Amanda Freking play a couple of dung beetles; Dennis Gisch and Heather Johnson are crickets; David Murphy and Rachel Foth are ants; Brandon Donahe is a fly, Rebecca McGuire is a larva and Marian Studer is a parasite.
Other cast members include Angie Weber, Katie Patterson, Bob Brandenburg, Tyler Rahm, and Chris Kohlhaas. Wade MacDonald, Angie Kohlhaas, Paul Loebach Jake Kohlhaas, Michael Loebach, and Rosalind Kirsch are other featured players. Rounding out the cast are Mike Blocket, Amanda Wolf, Sarah Erdman, Janel Richter, and Nellie Fowler. The show just started rehearsals, and the performances are scheduled for March 24 and 25, right here at BGHS.
Before the play, there’s another big event on the Garrigan stage. Next Thursday and Friday we’ll have the annual Garrigan pops concert. At this year’s pops concert you can go “Back to the Future”, as the band and choir take you into the 21st Century with music from the past. Among the featured soloists and small groups at pops concert are Angie Kohlhaas, Janet Kramer, Tyler Struck, Amanda Freking, Kelly Kohlhaas, Jessica Wagner, Andi Kramer, and Ellie Reising. Showtime is 7:30pm next Thursday and Friday in Garrigan’s Friedmann Auditorium.
If you haven’t been to the Bishop Garrigan website lately, you need to check it out again. Some of the recent improvements include new pages for choir, band, and art—as well as an improved alumni section and all the latest scores from intramural basketball. Coming soon you’ll have a chance to make your contribution to the school on-line directly from the website. Sophomore Kevin Lind is the BGHS webmaster. You can check out what he and his fellow students have done when you’re surfing the internet at Garrigan’s permanent home in cyberspace: “garrigan.unlimitedweb.net”.
There’s no way we could let this show go by without talking about the incredible week our Golden Bear basketball players have had. It’s the girls everyone has been talking about. Last Saturday they beat Ft. Dodge St. Edmond 71—56, and then on Tuesday they got another huge victory, as they won 48—36 over Jewell South Hamilton. That earned the Bears a trip to the regional finals. They faced Southern Cal last night in that game, for the right to go to state. Senior Angie Froehlich has led the team throughout play-offs. Angie is now Garrigan’s all-time leading scorer, with a point total well over the 1,000 mark.
Most people have been expecting the Golden Bear girls to win, so it’s an especially nice feeling that the boys’ basketball team has also come together for an outstanding trip through play-offs. Monday they beat Britt West Hancock at Britt by a score of 69—61. They had one night of rest, and then played again on Wednesday night, back in Britt against the perrennial sports powerhouse, Emmetsburg. The Bears trailed through most of the game, but they managed to come from behind and win 67—60. It has helped in play-offs that while teams have concentrated on junior stand-out Brad Nelson. When one man is double-teamed, that leaves someone else open, and the Bears’ open men have managed to score. Junior Scott McGuire and senior Tyler Struck have really stepped things up in play-offs. They’ve capitalized on opportunities and helped the team win.
Boys’ play-offs continue next week. On Tuesday the Bears will travel to Forest City for the district championship. They’ll face a tough team from Garner—Hayfield. If they play like they have in their other play-off games, though, we know it will be a close, hard-fought game. If the Bears pull-off a win on Tuesday, they’ll advance to the sub-state game next Friday night at Ft. Dodge Senior High, where they’ll play either Ft. Dodge St. Edmond or Southeast Webster. Good luck through the rest of play-offs to all our Golden Bear basketball players!
This week’s Senior Spotlight shines on Brandon Donahe. Brandon is a Kossuth County native whose primary interest is music. In addition to things like pops concert, you may have seen Brandon singing or strumming in a local dance band. Brandon was one of the candidates for Homecoming King last fall. Aside from music, he has been heavily involved in speech and drama, including winning an Outstanding Performer Award and a trip to the All-State Speech Festival last weekend. Brandon will be off to college next year, and we wish him all the best.
On our Golden Bear calendar this week, there’s the district speech contest all day today at Garrigan. Then tomorrow there’s more intramural basketball action.
Monday we start dress rehearsals for the Pops Concert. There’s a meeting at 7pm Monday night for prospective parents of kindergartners who will be in the Garrigan class of 2013.
Tuesday is Leap Year Day. That night there’s the boys’ district championship, with the Golden Bears facing Garner—Hayfield at Forest City.
Wednesday night Seton Grade School will hold their annual Education Fair. Then on Thursday and Friday it’s time to go “Back to the Future” with the Y2K 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.
