THE BEAR FACTS
October 3, 2020

Good morning! I’m Marguerite Fakler!

I’m Riley Rosenmeyer!

And I’m Ava Eisenbarth! Thanks for joining us once again for the “Bear Facts”, your weekly radio update from Bishop Garrigan High School.

Last Tuesday twelve seniors were inducted into the Bishop Garrigan Honor Society. Normally the induction would have been held last spring, but the scheduled date was shortly after everything was shut down by the pandemic. The fall ceremony was much smaller than usual, with just the students being inducted and their parents in attendance.

Students become eligible for the honor society based on their academic success and participation in a wide range of activities. Each student also has to document their service to the community and write an essay to apply for admission. This is all evaluated with a rubric, and those who make the cut are invited to join the honor society.

This year’s honor society inductees are Anna Berke, Joseph Trainer, Gracie Elsbecker, Joseph Bonstetter, Amanda Thilges, and Jack Snyder, plus Abbigail Heying, Reese Rosenmeyer, Kellen Murphy, Tara Kron, Aric Laubenthal, and Kaylyn Meyers. Next spring there will be another induction to add junior members. Congratulations to the National Honor Society honorees!

After a bit of a rocky start, the Golden Bear football team got back on track last week with a big overtime win over North Union. All the key seniors were back in action last week—with Kellen Murphy, Joe Merron, Derrick Kirsch, Angelo Winkel, Kale Kramer, Sean Davis, Mitch Buscherfeld, Joey Trainer, Isaiah Plathe, and Austin Von Bank all making key plays.

Because of the COVID-19 shortened season, every football team will make playoffs this year. The first round of playoffs will be October 16th, and in that round teams are supposed to be paired against others with similar records. We wish the Golden Bears good luck in the rest of the season and in playoffs.

This is a busy time of year for the Golden Bear volleyball team. After a tough day at the CYO tournament two weeks ago, they did really well in their home tournament last weekend. This coming week they’ll have three separate matches: at home vs. Webster City and then at West Hancock and Newell—Fonda. That will get them prepared for regionals, which are coming up later in October. Good luck, volleyball!
 

There are always some interesting classes offered at Garrigan. Every year students take college credit courses like Statistics, Abnormal Psychology, and Composition, and but there are lots of classes geared to students’ interests and skills, too. For instance, Mr. Ahlers teaches a guitar class, Mrs. Miller teaches classes in Modern Media and Psychology through Literature, and Mr. Patterson teaches a class where students learn about history through sports.

One of the oldest special interest classes is the course where Mr. Burrow works with students who maintain the student website, bggoldenbears.org. The website is celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary this year. It was created by Tim Mosbach, a Garrigan student who went on to a career in computer science, and it’s grown and changed continuously over the past quarter century.

This year Angelo Winkel, Isaiah Plathe, Adyn Rowlet, Lazarus Elbert, and Matt Denker are working to keep the website up to date. They take pictures and create pages that document every school event and activity. You can even find an archive of all the old “Bear Facts” broadcasts when you check out bggoldenbears.org.

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Ava Bartolo. Here to tell you about her is Veronica Capesius.

Ava Bartolo is a key member of the Golden Bear girls cross-country team, and she also runs distance events in track. You may have seen her on the Garrigan stage, since she’s been in both plays and musicals all through high school. Ava enjoys her job at Pet Haven’s Resort, and she also works at the Brookstone Lodge. Ava plans a career in veterinary medicine, and she plans to go to Iowa State next fall. Good luck, Ava!

Thanks, Veronica! On our Golden Bear calendar tomorrow at 1pm the sophomores will celebrate the sacrament of confirmation. Then on Monday the volleyball team is at home against Webster City.

Monday night there’s JV football, with the Bears playing West Hancock at Britt. Tuesday the cross-country team runs at Eagle Grove, and there’s volleyball at Britt.

We’ll have mass on Wednesday morning. Thursday there’s more volleyball, with the Bears traveling to Newell—Fonda. Then on Friday we’ll have a flu shot clinic, and that night the football team plays St. Edmond.

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