THE BEAR FACTS
February 26, 2022

 Good morning! I’m Eva Snyder!

 I’m Marguerite Fakler!

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

 The Golden Bear girls basketball team is headed back to state for the third straight year! They had a bye in the first round, beat West Bend—Mallard 63 – 20 in Round 2, and then swept past Nashua—Plainfield 70 – 34 in the regional semi-finals. Then on a cold night last Wednesday the Bears got a dominant 70 – 33 win over Riceville to move on to state.

 The Bears have been ranked number two in the state all season long, and they’ll have the #2-seed at state. While on paper they have the worst record of all the teams at state, that’s because they’ve played a much tougher schedule. Two of their three losses were to top teams in Classes 5-A and 3-A, and they beat the top-rated team in Class 2-A. The schedule should help them do well in the Class 1-A state tournament.

 The Bears begin their state action by taking on Burlington Notre Dame. The game will be next Wednesday at 5pm at Wells—Fargo Arena in Des Moines. A win on Wednesday will advance them to the state semi-finals, which will be Friday at 3:15 against either Springville or North Linn. The state championship will be next Saturday at 7pm, most likely a re-match between Garrigan and Newell—Fonda.

 Seating at state this year is back to being general admission, with no restrictions on numbers. Tickets are available online or at the Wells—Fargo Arena box office. The cost is $11.50, including the arena facility fee. Garrigan will play at 5pm Wednesday, but tickets will admit spectators to all the games that day.

 Juniors Audi Crooks and Molly Joyce get most of the attention on the Golden Bear team. Audi has scored 587 points so far this season, while Molly has scored 450. Seniors Meredith Tigges, Emma Grandgenett, and Ella Muller have helped out with steals and blocked shots; and Zoe Montag and Ashlyn Hovey have also been important in the shooting game. Reagan Murphy, Caelyn Capesius, and Alaina Casey have also made contributions for the Bears.

Last weekend Bishop Garrigan competed at state DECA, and the Bears did well at state. Riley Rosenmeyer was second overall in Human Resource Management, while Ben Greteman took first place on his knowledge test. Mya Kemna, Brooke Ludwig, Molly Peterson, Sam Greteman, Zach Warren, and Ben Greteman all earned honorable mentions in different areas of competition. Congratulations, DECA!

Today twelve Golden Bears are competing at the district individual speech contest over in Newell. The competition has already begun, with Marguerite Fakler reading the prose piece “The Long Way Home”, Griffin Geving reading the myth of Orpheus, and Eva Snyder performing a literary program on “Justice”. Right about now Meredith Illg is reading a humerous poetry version of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”.

In just a few minutes Benjy Trainer will compete in improvisation, Ava Eisenbarth will present a poetry selection called “Alternate Endings”, and Riley Rosenmeyer will read the prose piece “Women Are Saner than Men”. Around 10:30 Thadd Kollasch will perform in radio news announcing, and later this morning Benjy Trainer will present his acting selection “The Man Who Invented the Calendar”.
 Marguerite Fakler will sing “Forget About the Boy” for her musical theatre presentation at about 11am. Then at 1pm Ava Eisenbarth will present a literary program on “Skiing”. Then Brooke Ludwig will compere in improvisation and spontaneous speaking, and Isabella Waechter will read a poem called “Fairy Tale Reality Check”.

The day will conclude with two entries in reviewing. Molly Peterson will review a classical music piece called “Ariette”, and Riley Rosenmeyer will review the movie Legally Blonde. Best wishes at district to Coaches David Burrow and Ashley Meyer and the whole BGHS speech team!

This past week was National FFA Week. Many Bishop Garrigan students are active in the Algona FFA, and this year three of the core officers in the group are from Garrigan. Collin Casey serves as the chapter president, Molly Bormann is vice president, and Joe Schumacher serves as recorder. Congratulations to them and to all the FFA members!

 Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Ava Eisenbarth. Here to tell you about her is Garrett Heying.


 Ava Eisenbarth has two different entries at district speech contest today. She also earned two division one ratings at state large group speech earlier this month. Ava was part of the state champion golf team, she’s active choir and quiz bowl, she’s been a crew manager for plays, she’s exhibited her work in art shows, and her other activities include cheer, volleyball, and basketball. You’ve also heard Ava lots of times announcing on the “Bear Facts”, and away from school you might see her working at the Market. Ava will be off to college next year, and we wish her all the best in the future.

 Thanks, Garrett. On our Golden Bear calendar, there’s district individual speech today in Newell. Then Monday night the danz squad will hold their clinic and spring show. The performance will start at 6pm in the new gym.

We’ll have our regular student mass Tuesday morning. Then Wednesday morning we’ll have a special mass for Ash Wednesday. Around 10:00 Wednesday there will be a big pep rally to send the girls basketball off for state.

The girls play their opening round at state at 5:00 Wednesday night. A win on Wednesday would mean no school next Friday, when the girls play in the state semi-finals. Then next Saturday at 7pm is the state basketball championship.

 That’s the “Bear Facts” for February. Thanks for tuning in, and good luck to the girls down at state!

 GO BEARS!