The Bear Facts
September 27, 2025


Good morning! I’m Kayden Graves!

I’m Hailee Reutzel!

And I’m Emmi Bartolo! Welcome to another episode of the “Bear Facts”, the show where each week we keep you updated on all the news from Bishop Garrigan High School.

Three members of the Golden Bear danz squad recently learned that they had been selected to be part of the All-Iowa Honor Dance Team. The honorees will rehearse with other top dancers from around the state and will perform at the state basketball tournament next February. Congratulations to All-Iowa dancers Rosanne Curtis—Ricke, Kylie Capesius, and Delaney Fessler—Arndorfer!

Rehearsals are underway for the 2026 Bishop Garrigan musical. This year the drama and music departments are presenting The Addams Family Musical. The show won numerous awards on Broadway and has toured around the world for fifteen years. It features familiar characters like Morticia, Gomez, Pugsley, Lurch, and Uncle Fester—all set to music. You can see the show on stage November 7 and 9 here at Garrigan.


The show will feature Sacha Alesch, Amaury Thomas, Shiloh Trainer, Gabe Swift, and Kayden Graves; as well as Aidan Deitering, Alice Casey, Matt Besch, Tate Foertsch, Cora Deardeuff, Madelyn Tigges, and Leo Snyder. Others in the cast are Eva Kohlhaas, Addy Laubenthal, Henry Bode, Rachel Kahle, Emma Kollasch, and Rylee Garman. Rounding out the group are Anaya Thomas, Riley Doerning, Jarad Graves, Avery Culbertson, and Addy Deardeuff.

Directors for the show are Gina Geving and Abbi Mathahs. Showtime will be 7pm on Friday, November 7 and 2pm on Sunday, November 9. Be sure to mark your calendar to see The Addams Family in Friedmann Auditorium here at Bishop Garrigan.

Monday we’ll have our annual Walk and Pray event at Garrigan. Throughout September students raised money to help out with the school transportation budget. Again this year we managed to meet our goal, with more than $50,000 in donations. Now they’ll get together with family members to have fun on the Golden Bear track. We particularly encourage parents and grandparents to come and join the Garrigan students on the walk.

Grades 3 through 6 will be walking from 10:30 to 11:30, and the junior high and high school will take their term from 11:30 to 12:30. At 1pm the Seton students from prep through second grade will be walking. Then at 2:00 the whole school will be walking together, with a closing prayer to end the day at 2:30. Again families are welcome to join in at the Walk and Pray event on Monday.

Last Monday Bishop Garrigan faculty joined teachers from all over the Sioux City Diocese for a special inservice over at Carroll Kuemper. The biggest topic they learned about was artificial intelligence. They learned how A.I. fits in with the teachings of the Catholic church, how to recognize bad uses of it, and how both teachers and students can use A.I. productively.



Last weekend senior volleyball player Emmi Bartolo won all-CYO honors when the Bears competed in the CYO tournament in LeMars. Then on Tuesday The Golden Bear volleyball team got a big win at home this past over North Iowa. They’re hosting their home tournament today. The Bears will be hosting West Hancock, Garner Hayfield Ventura, Belmond Klemme, North Iowa, St. Ansgar, and Southeast Valley. The games start at 9:00 this morning in both the new gym and in Friedmann Auditorium. Good luck, volleyball!

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Sacha Alesch. Here to tell you about her is Carley Nielson.

Last year Sacha Alesch was named a “triple threat” for her accomplishments in acting, singing, and dance in last year’s musical. She performed in a special showcase at the Des Moines Civic Center last summer. She’s been involved in both school and community theatre plays, and she’s also involved in cheerleading, jazz choir, speech, the honor society, and the “Bear Facts” radio show. Sacha has also been an important part of the state tournament Golden Bear girls basketball team, and she’d like to play basketball in college. We wish Sacha all the best in the future.

Thank-you, Carley! On our Golden Bear calendar today the volleyball team hosts their home tournament here at Garrigan. All day Monday we’ll have the Walk and Pray event on the Garrigan track.

The cross-country team runs in the Algona Invitational Monday night, which is essentially a home tournament for the Bears. Also on Monday there’s volleyball at West Bend Mallard, and the JV football team travels to Northwood—Kensett.

There’s volleyball in Forest City on Tuesday, and the girls swim team has a meet in Decorah that night. We’ll have mass on Wednesday, and there’s also an assembly on human trafficking.

Picture retakes are on Thursday. Then next Friday the Golden Bear football team travels to North Union. Finally next Saturday is Algona Band Day, with the parade at 1pm and the field competition starting at 5:00.

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