Good morning! I’m Tyler Struck!
And I’m Jake Kohlhaas! Welcome once again to the “Bear Facts”, the radio show where we keep you in touch with all the news from Bishop Garrigan High School.
Today is the biggest day of the year for Golden Bear quiz bowl. B.G.H.S. is hosting around 350 students from all over northern Iowa to the state’s largest academic competition. Teams from twenty-eight different schools will be competing in the tournament, representing places as far away as LeMars, Boone, Riceville, and Wapsie Valley. Closer to home, students from Algona High, Armstrong/Ringsted, Twin River Valley, West Bend/Mallard, and Corwith/Wesley/Luverne will be joining the Bears at the tournament.
Garrigan has five teams entered in its home tournament. Tyler Struck is captain of the first team. His teammates include Dennis Gisch, John Mosbach, Nathan Frideres, and Bryan McAlpine. A team of juniors features captain Ben Lickteig, together with Ben Richter, Chris Missal, and Scott McGuire. Jennifer Reinhart is captain of the a team of girls. Joining her are Angie Kohlhaas, Lynn Kohlhaas, Ellie Reising, and Rebecca McGuire.
The fourth team includes captain Bob Brandenburg, together with Scott Black, Chris Kohlhaas, and Adam Rahm. Rounding out Garrigan’s teams is a freshman group, captained by Steve Kellner. He is joined by fellow ninth-graders Eric Fouarge, Zac Lickteig, and David Murphy. The comppetition begins at 10:00 this morning in twenty-three different rooms of the Garrigan building. The play-offs start at 1:15 this afternoon, and we’re hoping some Golden Bears make the cut to the “sweet sixteen”. All the day’s activities are open to the public, free of charge.
Each quiz bowl match consists of three rounds: a toss-up round, a bonus round, and a lightning round. The questions cover a wide variety of topics Traditional strengths for the Bears are sports, history, math, technology, current events, and popular culture. They’re less fond of questions about literature, music, art, and foreign languages—but they’re always willing to give everything a shot. We wish good luck to all the Bears in the quiz bowl tournament today.
This has been an outstanding year for the Golden Bear football team. The undefeated Bears have been on top of their district all season long. Their toughest game of the season came last week against Pocahontas, when they came from behind to win 19 to 15. While defense has been the Bears’ traditional strength, in several games this year the offense has exploded. Earlier this season on a snowy night at Sioux Central, senior John Mosbach set a new school record by scoring seven touchdowns in a single game as the Bears cruised to a fifty-point victory.
Among the top seniors this year are quarterback Tyler Struck, receivers Dennis Gisch and Josh Meyer, and captains Eric Becker and Justin Reding; as well as Joe Mayer, Justin Frideres, Jake Kohlhaas, Jason Geving, Derrick Frideres, Chris Weir, Matt Dornbier, Duane MacGregor, Trent Youngwirth, Matt Rahm, and Nick Roethler. In games like Pocahontas, where every point mattered, junior kicker Chad Mescher really came through with some great punts and extra points. Other key juniors are Hank Greer, Nick Even, Ben Richter, Chris Thilges, Greg Besch, and Andy Pierson. The younger players have also gotten some good playing time this year, and they’ve done a decent job, too.
Next week will be Parents’ Night for the Golden Bear football team, as the Bears welcome Armstrong Ringsted. Then they’ll close the regular season at home, in what promises to be the best game of the year—a tough match-up with the district’s other powerhouse, Southern Cal. Everyone’s expecting the Bears to advance to play-offs again this year, and we’re all hoping they’ll go a bit farther down the road than they did last year. Good luck through the rest of the season to Coach Wadle and all the Golden Bears!
The Solid Gold Marching Band wrapped up their best competition season in recent years last Saturday when they performed at the state marching band contest in Fort Dodge. A very strict group of judges gave the Bears a respectable Division II (or “good”) rating. Only four bands did any better than that. Congratulations on a great season to the band!
This week’s Senior Spotlight shines on Ben McGuire and Jake Kohlhaas. Here to fill you in on them is John Mosbach.
Ben McGuire is one of this year’s Golden Bear football trainers. At school he enjoys classes like Math V and Peer Helper, and when he’s away from Garrigan he likes music and computers. You may have seen Ben working at Hy-Vee. He plans to major in computer engineering at college, and we wish him all the best.
Jake Kohlhaas is active in football, choir, and speech. He likes art, weight-lifting, riding horses, and spending time with friends. Jake is another Hy-Vee employee. You’ve probably seen him working in the bakery department. Jake is looking at going to Iowa State next year. Good luck, Mongo!
Thanks, John! On our Golden Bear calendar this week, there’s the big quiz bowl today at Garrigan. Also this morning there’s freshman volleyball at North Kossuth. Then tomorrow the Knights of Columbus will have their annual turkey dinner.
Monday the cross-country team finishes their regular season at Spencer. There’s also JV football that night, with the Bears travelling to Mason City Newman.
District volleyball also begins on Monday night. This year B.G.H.S. will be hosting the first two rounds of districts, so you can see the Bears in post season play right here in the Garrigan gym.
Tuesday there’s freshman speech try-outs. That night teachers and parents will be getting together for a special school improvement meeting. Then on Wednesday district volleyball continues.
Thursday we’ll dismiss at 12:45 for teacher in-service. That afternoon the cross-country team runs in the district meet at Eagle Grove. Then on Friday it’s Parents’ Night for cross-country, cheerleading, and football, as the Bears take on Armstrong/Ringsted.
That’s the “Bear Facts” for another week. Thanks for listening, and be sure to join us again next week for
