Good morning! I’m Joseph Trainer!
I’m Meredith Tigges!
And I’m Jack Snyder! Thanks for tuning in to the “Bear Facts”, the radio show
where each week we bring you all the news from Bishop Garrigan High School.
Did you know that Mr. Potato Head was the first toy to be advertised on
television? … Or that Marie Curie discovered two elements—both radium and
polonium? … Or that one of the protesters who was killed in Kenosha this summer
tried to defend himself with a skateboard? Those are all examples of the kind of
trivia that comes up in quiz bowl.
2020 marks the thirtieth anniversary for Bishop Garrigan’s annual quiz bowl
tournament, though with the pandemic things will be a little different this
year. Instead of a live event at the school, this year’s tournament will be held
online, with teams competing on the Google Meet platform. Twenty teams from all
over northwest Iowa are entered, with half competing today and the other half
next Saturday.
Having schools compete at different times means more questions are necessary to
keep the competition fair, and quiz bowl coach David Burrow has been busy since
last April assembling sixteen rounds of questions that will be used in this
year’s tournament. That’s more than 1500 total questions that will be asked, and
hopefully most of them will be answered.
Garrigan will have three teams competing, with two of them playing their games
today. One team is made up of national quiz bowl veterans including seniors Aric
Laubenthal, Joseph Trainer, and Abbi Heying, and junior Meredith Tigges. The
other team features freshmen who did very well in junior high quiz bowl last
year: Sam Plathe, Ben Greteman, Benjy Trainer, Brendan Plathe, and Nick
Laubenthal. Good luck, quiz bowl!
Last week we said goodbye to someone who has been part of the Golden Bear
family for a very long time. Colleen Conway—Schiltz was a 1987 Garrigan
graduate. She served for years as the Garrigan dance coach, and more recently
she worked as a resource assistant. She and her husband are retiring to the Des
Moines area to be closer to their children and grandchildren. We’ll really miss
having Mrs. Schiltz here at Garrigan.
If you can’t be at Garrigan for school events like volleyball games or concerts,
you can catch those events livestreamed on YouTube. These events are
livestreamed and then archived on the BGS Media channel, which is linked from
the student website. You can also watch livestreams of our weekly student masses
on the Five Saints YouTube channel.
The Golden Bear cross-country team has been having a pretty good season, in
spite of a few stumbles due to injuries and the coronavirus. Junior Quinn Swift
and senior Joseph Meis have medaled at multiple meets this fall, and juniors
Hollis Bode and Saban Meraz and sophomore Gavin Swift have also contributed to
the boys’ success.
On the girls side freshman Lauren Swift has also earned medals for her efforts.
Also earning points for the girls have been seniors Ava Bartolo, Amanda Thilges,
and Kelle Baade, and freshman Abbie Capesius. The cross-country team runs at
Forest City next Monday, and Thursday they’ll have the Top of Iowa Conference
meet at Eagle Grove.
Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Anna Berke. Here to tell you about her
is DDDDD.
DDDDD: Anna Berke is an Algona native who is active in just about every activity
there is at Garrigan. She was part of the state basketball team last spring, and
she was also on the state championship golf team as a sophomore. Anna plays
volleyball, she’s been in plays and musicals, and she’s won awards in speech and
DECA. You may have even seen Anna on TV, since she was interviewed by CNN about
life as a high schooler during the pandemic. Anna plans to attend the University
of Iowa next year, and we wish her all the best after high school.
Thanks, DDDDD. On our Golden Bear calendar, today is the first half of the
Bishop Garrigan quiz bowl tournament, which is being held online this year. Then
tomorrow is the second round of “socially distanced” confirmation masses.
Monday morning the seniors will have their class photo taken. That night the
volleyball team plays at North Iowa, in a game postponed from September. Also on
Monday night there’s cross-country at Forest City.
Tuesday there’s more volleyball, with the Bears hosting Humboldt. We’ll have
mass on Wednesday, with high school students attending live for a change. Also
that morning many juniors will be taking the PSAT.
Thursday there’s the conference cross-country meet at Eagle Grove. Next Friday
is the first round of football playoffs, and next Saturday we’ll have the rest
of the online BGHS quiz bowl tournament.
That’s the “Bear Facts” for this week. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to
catch the show again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.