THE BEAR FACTS
April 1, 2023
Good morning! I’m Violet Bode!
I’m Abbie Capesius!
And I’m Brendan Plathe! Happy April from the “Bear Facts” and from all of
us here at Bishop Garrigan High School.
Last Saturday Garrigan celebrated our 34th Gala, and the event brought in
a record amount of money for the school. When everything was tallied up, more
than $430,000 was raised for Garrigan and Seton. The live auction alone brought
in $163,600, and additional money was raised from the silent auction and through
various games and raffles. Thanks to everyone who helped to make Gala 2023 a
huge success!
The Golden Bear quiz bowl team is wrapping up their season today by
participating in the nationwide 3—2—1 spring tournament. This is an online event
where students work together to answer 240 questions that are arranged in groups
of three that feature the same topic. Earlier this week the quiz bowl team
participated in another online event, the Iowa State University virtual quiz.
We’ll let you know how the team did on a future show.
Yesterday we had two special religious events at Garrigan. As we’ve done
every Friday in Lent, we celebrated the Stations of the Cross in the Garrigan
chapel. In addition to that we had a special Eucharistic procession in the
morning. This is a special parade that features a consecrated host. It’s a
tradition in the Catholic church that allows people to give public witness to
their faith. At Garrigan the procession gets us ready for Holy Week and Easter.
Commemorative shirts are now available to celebrate the back-to-back state
champion Golden Bear girls. The gold-colored shirts honor the top basketball
team in Iowa. Links for ordering are available at bggoldenbears.org and
bishopgarrigan.org, as well as on the Garrigan Facebook page. Orders must be
placed online, and the deadline is tomorrow night at midnight. Be sure to get
your commemorative basketball championship shirt.
Girls basketball coach Brandan Schwab was recently featured on the Iowa
Public Television show Market to Market. The feature is called “Making Practice
Plans from the Cab”, and it looks into how Coach Schwab balances coaching a
state championship team with fifteen years of managing the family farm. There
are links to watch the YouTube version of this feature on the Garrigan student
website at bggoldenbears.org.
Last Sunday three Garrigan students competed in the Knights of Columbus
state free throw contest in Boone. Freshmen Tate Foertsch and Alyssa Haugland
and seventh grader Lilly Wickman all advanced to state in different divisions.
The girls did especially well. Alyssa finished second statewide in her division,
while Lilly was third. Congratulations, K.C. free throw shooters!
With winter sports in the books, spring sports have begun. We’ve already
previewed the track and golf teams, but Golden Bears are also an important part
of the area trapshooting and archery clubs. The Royal Arrow archers had their
first meet of the season last weekend in Faribault, Minnesota. Alaina Bormann
was the top female at the meet, and Nathaniel Darling was top on the male side.
Eli Ricke and Spencer Doerning also compete in archery.
Seventeen Golden Bears are part of the Izaak Walton League trapshooting
team, and they have their first meet at home this morning. Seniors in
trapshooting are Matt Kollasch, Caleb Bormann, Drew Casey, Sam Bohan, Connor
Davis, and Nate Bronk. The younger shooters include Scott Bormann, Ethan Marso,
Josh Bernhard, Wyatt Rosenmeyer, Keaton Helleseth, Nick Thul, Andrew Lichter,
Logan Buscher, Kollyn Wiemers, and Noah Berte. Blair Becker and Hailee Reutzel
are the girls on this year’s team. Good luck all spring to the archers and
trapshooters!
Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Ryan Noonan. Here to tell you
about him is Tate Foertsch.
Ryan Noonan is probably best known for his accomplishments in basketball.
He’s been a key player throughout high school, and as a senior he either started
or was sixth man for the Golden Bear boys. Ryan is looking at going to DMACC
next year, and he’s looking at majoring in business. We wish him all the best in
the future.
Because of the upcoming Easter holiday, we’ve got two weeks of events on
our Golden Bear calendar. There’s trapshooting at home this morning, and the
quiz bowl team has the 3—2—1 contest. Also today Parish Families Against Hunger
are packaging food.
Tomorrow is Palm Sunday. Monday the golf teams start their season against
Spencer. The boys are at home, and the girls are away. There’s mass Tuesday
morning, and that night the golf teams play at Eagle Grove.
There’s girls track at Clear Lake on Tuesday. Wednesday there’s another
home trapshooting meet, and the junior class has a retreat. There’s also a lower
elementary concert Tuesday night.
We’ll have our annual Day of Reflection on Holy Thursday. There’s no
activities that night or on Good Friday, Holy Saturday, or Easter Sunday.
There’s no school on Easter Monday, but Garrigan will be hosting a coed track
meet that night.
Students will be taking the Iowa Assessments right after Easter. We’ll
have mass on Tuesday the 11th. That night there’s golf at Lake Mills, boys track
at Fort Dodge, and girls track at Algona High.
On Wednesday the 12th we’ll have tryouts for next year’s danz squad.
Thursday the 13th there’s golf in Forest City and boys track at Lake Mills.
Finally Saturday the 15th there’s state solo and small ensemble music contest.
That’s our first “Bear Facts” for April. We’ll be off next week for the
Easter holiday, but be sure to catch the show again two weeks from today for
more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.