The Bear Facts September 30, 2023
Good morning! I’m Thadd Kollasch!
I’m Drew Muller!
And I’m Tate Foertsch! Thanks for joining us for the 1201st episode of the “Bear Facts”, the weekly radio show from Bishop Garrigan High School.
We had a surprise on Thursday. There was a water main break near Garrigan on Wednesday night. It’s hard for a school to run without sinks and toilets, so with no water they had to cancel school on Thursday. We expect to have days off in winter, but it was a surprise to hear there was no school on a random day in September.
Today is Algona Band Day. Bishop Garrigan has been part of the event for almost all of its 75-year history, and today the Solid Gold Marching Band will be in both the parade and field competitions. The Garrigan junior high band will be second in the parade this afternoon, while the high school is #8 among the bands. There will also be some Golden Bear alumni back for this milestone band day. You can see the parade live on State Street or watch it on the KLGA YouTube livestream.
Garrigan is second on the schedule in the field contest. The Solid Gold Marching Band is scheduled to perform at 6pm at the Algona High field. This year the band’s field show features the music of Grease. Songs featured in the show are “Greased Lightnin’”, “Summer Nights”, “You’re the One that I Want”, and “We Go Together”. Avery Lichter and Elena Salinas are the drum majors for the 2023 Solid Gold Marching BanThe coming week is a big one for music. In addition to band day, next Wednesday the Bishop Garrigan choir will be attending the Sioux City Diocese Catholic Choral Festival. This year’s festival will be at Kuemper High School in Carroll, with a public concert at 7:00 Wednesday night. Each school will perform a special song for the concert. Garrigan will be singing is “Il Est Bel et Bon”, a French song about a woman who is gossipping about her husband.
October marks the start of quiz bowl season, and the Golden Bears are hoping for another good year. Eight seniors are returning to this years team: Brendan Plathe, Benjy Trainer, Ben Greteman, Sam Plathe, Zach Warren, Violet Bode, Abbie Capesius, and Nick Laubenthal. Juniors in quiz bowl include Thadd Kollasch, Sam Greteman, Brooke Ludwig, Griffin Geving, Hannah Merron, and Scott Bormann. The team also includes sophomores Tate Foertsch, Amaury Thomas, and Gabe Swift; and freshmen Marshall Bormann, Corbin Darling, and Shiloh Trainer.
The first quiz bowl competition of the year will be two weeks from today, when we’ll be hosting the thirty-third annual Bishop Garrigan quiz bowl tournament, where teams from all over northern Iowa will be competing. They’ll also be going to several other tournaments, and they’ll participate in many online events throughout the year.
Monday is National Custodian Appreciation Day. Like all schools Garrigan depends on its custodians to keep things going. For several years now our main janitor has been Linda Hammond. Ron and Marty Patterson help keep thing looking nice outdoors, and Greg Ahlers helps out with maintenance. Several other people help with cleaning things up, including Garrigan graduate Sean Dyson. We want to say thanks to all our custodians.Tomorrow Garrigan’s sophomores have a confirmation retreat up at St. John’s in Bancroft. This year’s confirmation mass will be next Sunday, October 8, at St. Cecelia’s. Most of the sophomores have spent the past year preparing for confirmation. We congratulate them and wish them well as they start another phase in their faith life.
Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Nick Laubenthal. Here to tell you about him is Daniel Meis.
Nick is a Whittemore native whose biggest activities are choir and quiz bowl. He’s also part of the stage crew for plays and musicals at Garrigan. When he was interviewd as part of the Homecoming court, Nick said he works on the family farm, but his boss works him too hard. When he’s not busy at school Nick enjoys pickleball and fishing. Next year he plans to go to Iowa State, and in the future he’d like to be an officer for the Department of Natural Resources. Good luck, Nick!
On this week’s Golden Bear calendar, a few Garrigan students will be part of the Tornado Alley Run this morning. Then there’s Algona Band Day. The parde begins at 1:00 this afternoon, and Garrigan will perform at 6pm in the field competition.
Tomorrow there’s a confirmation retreat. Monday the JV football team will play at North Iowa. Then on Tuesday there’s cross-country at Eagle Grove.
On Tuesday night the volleyball team will host West Hancock, a team they beat in their home tournament last week. Wednesday is Catholic Choral Day. The choir will be gone all day, and that night they have a concert at Carroll Kuemper.
Thursday there’s a swim meet at Mason City. The volleyball team hosts Newell—Fonda that night. We’ll have the Walk and Pray event on Friday, where we’ll walk around the track and pray for the intentions people put on their cards.
Friday night the football team travels to Graettinger for district matchup against GTRA. Then next Saturday there’s state marching band at Fort Dodge.
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.