THE BEAR FACTS
January 31, 2026

Good morning! I’m Tate Foertsch!

I’m Alyssa Haugland!

And I’m Kayden Graves! Welcome once again to the “Bear Facts”, the radio show where we keep you up to date on all the news from Bishop Garrigan High School.

Today sixteen Garrigan choir students are over in Clear Lake for the state vocal jazz competition. This year’s contest is being held at Clear Lake Middle School. In the past the contest has been held at the Surf Ballroom, but this year the ballroom is busy with the winter party honoring Buddy Holly. Bishop Garrigan will be singing “Once Upon a Time” and “At the End of the Road”. Their performance will be at 9:00 this morning.

Garrigan’s vocal jazz ensemble includes Sacha Alesch, Delaney Fessler—Arndorfer, Abby Deardeuff, Lucy Eisenbarth, Cora Deardeuff, Madelyn Tigges, Anaya Thomas, Rachel Kahle, Shiloh Trainer, and Lilly Wickman; as well as Amaury Thomas, Matt Besch, Gabe Swift, Tate Foertsch, Kyle Bormann, and Kayden Graves. Best wishes at state, jazz choir!

Last Saturday five Garirgan groups competed in the district large-group speech contest at Manson. The Bears did as well as they could. All five groups earned Division I or “excellent” ratings and now move on to the state contest next weekend in Cherokee. Students going to state include Tate Foertsch, Aidan Deitering, and Kayden Graves in Radio Broadcasting, and Gabe Swift, Lucy Eisenbarth, Amaury Thomas, Madelyn Tigges, and Shiloh Trainer in Group improvisation.

Also earning Division I’s at district was the Readers’ Theatre “Marlin Mississippi Radio” which features Alice Casey, Amaury Thomas, Aubrey Meyer, Ava Roethler, Gabe Swift, Madelyn Tigges, Sacha Alesch, and Shiloh Trainer. In Ensemble Acting Aubrey Meyer, Cora Deardeuff, Harper Nelson, Kylie Capesius, and Lucy Eisenbarth earned excellent ratings with “The Commiittee Meeting”. The final group going to state is in Television Broadcasting, where Cora Deardeuff, Faith Glawe, Kylie Capesius, Riley Doerning, and Sheila Reding produced a show called “Clock It”.

Renetta Seiler and Maureen Meis are the large group speech coaches at Garrigan. All the competitors now advance to state contest, which will be next Saturday at Washington High School in Cherokee. Congratulations, and good luck at state to all the large group speech performers!

Tomorrow the Golden Bear dance team will be presenting their spring show. The program begins at 1pm and will feature the state champion pom routine and runner-up kick routine as well as several other dance routines choreographed by the team. You can also see the results of an intensive clinic for younger girls and performances from the Algona High dance team and various dancers from area studios.

Garrigan’s dance team features Rosanne Curtis—Ricke, Jayden Deike, Harper Nelson, Addison Laubenthal, Kylie Capesius, Hope Rooney, Rachel Kahle, Olivia Roethler, and Anaya Thomas; as well as Shiloh Trainer, Abby Deardeuff, Avery Culbertson, Delaney Fessler—Arndorfer, Rylee Garman, and Emma Kollasch. The dance coaches are Ashley Meyer and Ashley Frideres. Be sure to catch the spring show tomorrow at 1pm in the Garrigan gym.

Last Saturday Algona hosted the North Central Conference wrestling tournament, and two Garrigan students were among the Bulldogs’ top entries. Sophomore C.J. McGregor was the champion in the 144-pound weight class, and his brother, senior Carter McGregor, finished second at 157 pounds. The wrestlers will compete in regional duals this coming week. Good luck to them!

You can see pictures of all the Golden Bear activities on the BGHS student website, bggoldenbears.org. Garrigan was one of the first schools to go online, and our website just celebrated its thirtieth anniversary. This semester Nolan Antoine and Konner Kramer are updating and maintaining the school site. We encourage you to check out their work at bggoldenbears.org.

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Kyle Bormann. Here to tell you about them is Shiloh Trainer.

Kyle Bormann is one of the football players who helped lead Bishop Garrigan to another state championship last fall. He’s also one of the top runners on the Golden Bear track team, and he’s one of the musicians competing at state jazz choir today. Kyle has also helped maintain the school website in the past, and he challenges himself with such classes as college-credit calculus. We wish Kyle all the best after high school.

On our Golden Bear calendar, there’s state vocal jazz in Clear Lake. Also today Kiah Villareal competes in the second day of the girls wrestling state qualifying meet in Nevada.

Tonight is the winter formal. Then tomorrow at 1pm is the dance team’s spring show. Tuesday we’ll have the blessing of throats for the Feast of St. Blaise.

Tuesday night the Bears host Forest City in basketball. There’s also regional dual wrestling that night at Algona High.

There’s state girls wrestling in Coralville Thursday and Friday. Friday night the basketball teams travel to Britt to play West Hancock. Then on Saturday there’s district swimming and also state speech at Cherokee.

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