Good morning! I'm Steven Kellner!
I'm Jenna Hansen!
And I'm Autumn Thompson! You're listening to the "Bear Facts". Happy Easter from all of us at Bishop Garrigan High School.
There's no school at Garrigan next Monday, bit a lot of Garrigan students will be gathering together that afternoon for the intramural basketball play-offs. Intramurals are the single largest activity at Garrigan. We started the season in January with twelve teams and over ninety players. Now, after three months of preliminary games, we're down to the Final Four.
The first game of the play-offs will be at 1:00 on Monday. Bryan McAlpine's team is undefeated, and they have the number one seed in the play-offs. Bryan's teammates include Hank Greer, Shannon Hall, Russ Vaske, Chris Thilges, Andy Kardoes, Luke DeWaard, Andy Meyer, Scot Miller, and Matt Golwitzer. They will take on the fourth-seeded team, whose captain is Scott Black. Scott's team finished second overall last year, and his teammates are Steven Courtney, Andy Pierson, Nick Even, Chad Mescher, Chase Johnson, Michael Murphy, and Greg Besch.
At 2:00 there's a second big game, featuring Ben Meyer's second-seeded team versus Chris Missal's third seeds. Ben's team has completely dominated almost all of their opponents, running up an average of 107 points per game. His team includes Steve Goede, Nick Lane, Tyler Trenary, Tyler Erpelding, Mark Meister, and Brian Welp.; Chris Missal's team is second in scoring overall, with 72 points per game. Chris' teammates are Dan Bormann, Drew Hellman, Josh Richter, Paul Loebach, Dan Besch, Jake Rahm, Tony Schmitt, and Kevin Kohlhaas. The winners of Monday's games will play in the intramural championship, which will be Thursday, April 26.
In addition to going for the win, all of the intramural players are also vying for a spot on the vaguely prestigious "All-Intramural Team". Half of the selection criteria is based on points scored during the season, and the other half is an on-line poll for favorite players. You can join in the voting by going to the Garrigan website at "garrigan.unlimitedweb.net". If you click on "Sports" or "Activities", you'll find all the intramural stats, and you can cast your ballot for your favorite intramural players.
While intramurals are basically for fun, in track the Bears are hoping for some Garrigan victories. This year's boys' track team features returning state medallists Nick Even, Hank Greer, Ben Richter, Justin Fickbohm, and Lee Elbert. According to the team, the other top tracksters should include seniors Andrew Hellman, Tim Kohlhaas, and Jake Rahm; juniors Luke DeWaard and Andy Kardoes; sophomores Jeff Hellman, Joe Hellman, Mark Steier, and Matt Studer; and freshman John Kohlhaas. Marty Wadle and Greg Ahlers are coaching the boys' track team, and we wish all the guys good luck all season long.
The girls' track team also features returning state veterans. Angie Kohlhaas, Heather Stence, Ashley Arndorfer, Teresa McGuire, and Janel Richter all made the trip to Des Moines last year. The girls on the team feel very good about their prospects this year. They say other top runners to watch include senior Deanna Kohlhaas; juniors Hannah McCall and Laura Seeley; and sophomore Amy Rahm. Good luck to coaches Julie Collison and Joe Elbert, and to everyone who's out for girls' track.
The boys' golf team is also looking forward to a good season. Roger Froehlich is in charge of the team this year, and he'll be looking to seniors like Scott McGuire, Russ Vaske, Chad Mescher, and Josh Hanig for leadership. The core of the team is juniors like Adam Cink, Jeff Vaske,. Tyler Erpelding, Nolan Thilges, Ben Meyer, Nick Lane, Steve Goede, and Andy Meyer. Alex Vaske is the lone sophomore out for golf. There are also four freshmen: Adam "A.J." Cink, Ben Geelan, Jason Lallier, and Grant Vaske. Good luck to the boys' golfers!
Our Senior Spotlight for Easter shines on Lisa Arndorfer. Lisa is a very active senior. Her number one activity is softball, but she's also in choir, and in the past she was active in basketball, volleyball, track, and band. Lisa enjoys intramurals, where she says her team was "awesome". When she's not at school, you might see her working at the Algona Good Samaritan Center. Next year she plans to attend Kirkwood Community College, where she'll be majoring in nursing. Good luck, Lisa:
On this week's Golden Bear calendar, there are absolutely no activities anywhere in the Sioux City Diocese this weekend because of the sacred Easter holiday. The activities resume Monday, though, with the big intramural play-offs.
Also on Monday the golf teams play Clarion/Goldfield. Then Tuesday many teachers and administrators will be attending the National Catholic Education Association convention in Milwaukee.
Tuesday night the girls' track team runs at Garner. Then Wednesday there's boys' track at Estherville and girls' track at Armstrong/Ringsted. Also on Wednesday the golf teams play Clear Lake.
Thursday and Friday about thirty students will be in Cedar Falls for the annual Model United Nations conference at UNI. Garrigan has school next Friday, even though the Algona Community Schools will not be in session.
Friday night the boys' track team runs at Pocahontas while the girls will be running at Estherville. Also on Friday the golf teams take on Iowa Falls.
Next Saturday morning the boys' golf team plays Algona High. Also that day there's the state mathematics championship in Iowa City, and the quiz bowl team will be at their last tournament of the season in Ames.
Finally next Saturday night the gym will come alive again as we celebrate "An Evening in Paradise" for Prom, 2001.
That's the "Bear Facts" for this week. Have a wonderful Easter, and be sure to join us again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.
