The Bear Facts
May 17, 2025

Good morning!  I'm Tate Foertsch!

And I'm Alyssa Haugland! Thanks for joining us for our last “Bear Facts” of the 2024 – 2025 school year. Today we’ll be wrapping up the year and looking forward to summer here at Bishop Garrigan High School.

Last fall the BGHS music and drama departments presented the musical The Drowsy Chaperone. Evaluators from the Iowa Musical Theatre Awards watched and critiqued the show, and they were very impressed with what they saw. Sacha Alesch’s song “As We Stumble Along” received an Outstanding Scene honor. Both Sacha Alesch and Aidan Deitering were named Outstanding Performers, and Isabella Waechter and Amaury Thomas earned Special Recognition honors.

Sacha also received the Triple Threat Award for her talent in singing, dancing, and acting. She now can compete for a chance to go to Broadway. Aidan Deitering was invited to perform at the Summer Showcase in Des Moines, which will be broadcast later this year on Iowa Public Television. Congratulations to them and to everyone involved in The Drowsy Chaperone!

Both the baseball and softball teams are defending Top of Iowa Conference championships. The softball team features three returning seniors around the infield—Zoe Montag, Molly Peterson, and Hanna Merron. The team also includes juniors Alyssa Haugland and Carley Nielson, and sophomores Shiloh Trainer and Bree Ludwig.

There’s lots of younger players, too. The freshmen in softball are Jenna Peterson, Cate Birkey, Brooklyn Berte, Emma Garman, Lillian Wickman, and Jayden Deike. Coming up from the eighth grade are Addie Bartolo, Anaya Thomas, Avery Culbertson, Riley Doerning, Olivia Roethler, Emma Kollasch, Rylee Garman, and Rachel Kahle. Good luck, softball!

The baseball team features five returning seniors—Thadd Kollasch, Brady Galligan, Daniel Meis, Drew Muller, and Nick Leerar. Juniors Tate Foertsch and Carter Schwab were also varsity starters last year, and Kayden Graves will also be adding to the team. The sophomores in baseball are Eli Casey, Nate Leerar, and Aidan Deitering.

There’s a big group of freshmen on the baseball team. They include Brad Meister, Alec Deitering, Karson Kramer, Teague Alesch, Nolan Antoine, Henry Bode, and Woodrow Wells. Joining them on the field will be eighth grader Jared Graves. Good luck all summer long to the baseball team!

A big highlight of the baseball season will come on Thursday, June 12, when the team will play at Target Field in Minneapolis. The Twins will be playing the Texas Rangers at noon that day, and when the major league game is over Bishop Garrigan will be taking on Clarion Goldfield Dows. To get tickets, see any Golden Bear baseball player or Coach Meister.

A big event for a lot of the Garrigan family will be happening on Saturday, June 7. That day Garrigan alumnus and former teacher Jake Rosenmeyer will receive his final ordination as a priest at the Cathedral of the Epiphany in Sioux City. The following afternoon he will say his first full mass at St. Cecelia’s, and many faculty, students, and friends of the school will be on hand to celebrate.

Right after school starts next fall we’ll have a special banquet to honor the first group of inductees in the Bishop Garrigan Athletic Hall of Fame. The honorees include athletes and coaches who excelled in football, baseball, basketball, track, and golf. Those to be honored at the August 28 banquet are Gene Meister, Tom Froehlich, Renetta Seiler, Brad Nelson, Jim Geelan, Jack Muller, Paul Seiler, and the 1975 state champion golf team. Congratulations to them!

On our Golden Bear calendar, there’s a home trapshooting meet this morning. Monday we’ll be finishing up finals. There’s parish busing because of an early dismissal on the last day of school.

Monday night there’s boys district golf in LeMars. Then on Wednesday there’s girls regional golf at Nashua. The state track meet will be next Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.

Baseball season starts next Thursday, when the Bears play at Algona High. Both baseball and softball have their first home games on May 27, when they’ll host Belmond—Klemme.

Some highlights of the summer include June 7, when there’s CYO softball and baseball in LeMars. That’s also the day of Jake Rosenmeyer’s ordination. Then on June 12 the baseball team plays at Target Field.

On June 21st there will be a memorial service at St. Cecelia’s for longtime Garrigan English teacher Mary McCall. Baseball and softball playoffs begin right after the 4th of July.

Football and volleyball camps begin August 4, and official practices for fall sports start August 11. School starts up again on August 25, and the hall of fame induction will be on the 28th.

Finally this week we want to say goodbye to two of our teachers. For the past twenty-years Beany Bode has juggled teaching science and farming, and now he’ll be working in agriculture full time. Antonia Rupert has been our choir director for the past six years. She is moving to be closer to her family in central Illinois. We’ll miss both Mr. Bode and Miss Rupert, and we wish them the very best after they leave Garrigan.

That’s the “Bear Facts” for this year. Thanks to all twenty-four of the students who contributed to the show this year, and also to our faculty advisor David Burrow. Thanks also to KLGA for airing the show every week and to all the businesses who sponsor us. Finally, thanks to you for listening. We’ll be off for the summer, but mark your calendar for Saturday, August 30, when we should be back bringing you all the news from Bishop Garrigan High School.