The Bear Facts—January 7, 2012


Good morning! I’m Emily Bell!

And I’m Mallory Bormann! You’re listening to the “Bear Facts” Happy New Year from all of us here at Bishop Garrigan High School.

Speech season is here again. Head coach Mary McCall has been busy preparing this year’s selections, and now she and assistant coach David Burrow are listening to groups rehearse for district contest. This year’s varsity readers’ theatre is called “Cinderella Confidential”, and it tells of reporters getting the scoop on the night of the fairy tail ball. There’s also a freshman readers’ theatre called “Three on a Bench”. Garrigan will enter three acting ensembles, with the selections “A Mustache and a Matress”, “Taking Off”, and “The Ugly Duckling”.

The Golden Bears are also competing in musical theatre, with the selection “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid” from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. There’s also a short film entry for the second straight year, plus two group mimes, and four improvisation groups. District contest will be January 21 at Algona High, and we know everybody will be working hard as they get ready to perform.

It’s also time once again for intramural basketball. Intramurals are open to anyone who’s not on the varsity or JV teams, and competition runs every Sunday afternoon. This year there are seven teams entered. There will be a round-robin tournament, followed by playoffs in March. There’s no clear favorite this year, but Team #3, who call themselves the Brick Squad, includes several returning members of last year’s championship team. That team includes Andrew Eden, Luke Eischen, Terrenze Franklin, Alex Boisjolie, Daniel Gelhaus, and Sarah McCall.


Team #1, the Squirrels, is an all-girl’s team. It includes Amelia Golwitzer, Erin Reedy, Logan Kumm, Hannah Boisjolie, Jeanne McCall, and Patricia Brandt; plus Paige Berte, Andrea Gisch, Cassidy Vitzthum, and Sydney Elbert. Team #5 has a mixture of people—with John Richter, Philip Detrick,  Austin Salz, Sam Evers, and Alex Matthews; together with Matthew Fakler, Mark Fakler, Mackenzie Eischen, Jakob Hamilton, Corey Weydert, and Sean Hart.

Team 7 probably has the strangest name, Captain Crunch and the Cereal Killers. It includes Dillon Walker, Connor Garman,  Colton Carroll, Jake Kollasch, Jonathan Berte, and Andrew McGuire. Charlie Thilges is the captain of Team #4, and his teammates are Thomas Bradley, Elliot Boisjolie, Bobby Plathe, and Joseph Skilling; as well as Victor Berte, Jason Reding, Rebecca Richter, and Shawn Vaske.

Abbey Reding is the captain of Flirty and Nerdy, another all-girl team. It features Bethany Capesius, Rachel Berte, Jenny Broesder, Andrea Altman, Lana Larson, and Lizzy Hohmeister. The final team was organized by principal Lynn Miller. It includes Craig Kohlhaas and a lot of Garrigan faculty and staff. Intramural games begin at 1:00 this Sunday, so good luck to everyone competing in intramurals!

There are a couple of music honor festivals coming up. Today Grace Steil, Jakob Hamilton, and Mark Fakler are over in Mason City for the North Central Iowa Bandmasters Honor Band. There will be another honor band for students from the Sioux City Diocese at Buena Vista University on January 18th. Next Saturday it’s time for vocal music students to be honored. Philip Detrick, Sophia Kaduce, and Nick Bronk will be in Waverly for the annual Meistersingers festival. Best wishes to all these music honorees.




We’ve been back for a week since Christmas break, and now we’re getting ready for semester tests. Exams will be next Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and we have a special schedule each day for testing. Wednesday we’ll have tests for periods 1 and 2 in the morning. At lunch the juniors will go to Pizza Ranch as their reward for being the top class in the magazine drive last fall. Then in the afternoon we’ll have the period 7 exam.

Semester tests continue on Thursday, with periods 3 and 4 in the morning and period 8 in the afternoon. On Friday we’ll finish up first semester, with tests for periods 5 and 6. All during the testing time there’s extra-long lunch periods and also open campus for everyone who doesn’t have tests scheduled.

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Jennifer Broesder. Here to tell you about her is Sheridan Berte.

Jenny Broesder comes to Garrigan from the Bancoft area. She’s been active in band, speech, and math team all through high school, and when she’s not busy at school she likes to be outside and spend time with her friends. Jennifer works at the KC hall, and next year she’d like to major in accounting at college. We wish Jenny all the best in the future.

Thanks, Sher. On our Golden Bear calendar today there’s an honor band at NIACC in Mason City today. Then tonight the basketball Bears take on CWL at Corwith.

Tomorrow intramural basketball begins. Doors will open at 12:30, and the action starts at 1pm. Following intramurals there’s the KC free throw contest in the Garrigan gym.

Monday the freshman boys and JV girls host NSKAR. Then on Tuesday the JV and varsity Bears have a quad against St. Ed’s. The baseball and softball teams will be serving a soup and salad meal during the games.

Wednesday semester tests begin. The juniors will have their award meal from the magazine drive at Pizza Ranch that afternoon. Thursday there’s more semester tests, and the freshman boys host Estherville—Lincoln Central that night.

Semester tests finish up next Friday. The varsity Bears host Webster City that night. Then Saturday there’s the Meistersingers music festival at Wartburg College in Waverly and the quiz bowl team will be competing in the Twin Lakes tournament at Sioux Rapids.

That’s our first “Bear Facts” for 2012. Thanks for tuning in, and be sure to catch the show again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.

BS1/5/12