The Bear Facts
March 18, 2023

Good morning! I’m Thadd Kollasch!

I’m Gavin Swift!

And I’m Joey Doerning! Thanks for joining us for the “Bear Facts”, the weekly radio update from Bishop Garrigan High School.
 

Last Saturday BGHS students competed at the state individual speech contest in Fort Dodge. The Bears had a great day, earning eight Division I or “excellent” ratings and three Division II or “good” ratings. Brooke Ludwig earned top marks for her Expository Address on CPR and also in Spontaneous Speaking, and Savannah Waechter got I’s for a Literary Program entitled “Images of Women” and for a Prose selection called “Scuba Lessons”.

Benjy Trainer earned a Division I in Improvisation, and Tate Foertsch was judged excellent in Radio News Announcing. Molly Peterson got a I for her review of the movie “Mean Girls”, and Violet Bode got a top rating in Spontaneous Speaking. Students who received II’s include Gavin Swift in Improvisation, Sam Plathe in Spontaneous Speaking, and Violet Bode in Prose. Congratulations to all the speech students and to directors David Burrow, Ashley Meyer, and Maureen Meis.

Gala 2023 is just around the corner. The big event will be next Saturday, March 25, with a preview party on Friday the 24th. The Gala theme this year is “Cornerstone”. This will be the 34th annual Gala. Last year’s event brought in a record $413,000, nearly five times as much as the first Gala back in 1990. We’re hoping Gala 2023 will be another big success.

Tonight is your last chance to see the Bishop Garrigan spring play, Angel in the Night. Based on a true story, the play tells the story of a Polish girl who was arrested by the Nazis after she helped save the lives of four Jewish people during World War II. The final performance is tonight at 7pm in Friedmann Auditorium, and admission is just $7 per person.

Track season is here. Both the girls and boys track teams began their season with indoor meets this past week, and the regular track season will be starting soon. The girls team is looking for big things out of seniors Molly Joyce and Audi Crooks, who won state championships in the long jump, discus, and shot put last year.

Other girls out for track include Reagan Murphy, Abbie Capesius, and Violet Bode; plus Zoe Montag, Hanna Merron, Brooke Ludwig, and Molly Peterson. Rounding out the girls team are Sacha Alesch, Emmi Bartolo, Ava Roethler, Haley Nemmers, Alyssa Haugland, and Rosanne Curtis—Ricke.

On the boys side, the returning seniors are Cal Birkey, Gavin Swift, and Devon Berte. Junior boys in track include Benjy Trainer, Caden Roethler, Sam Plathe, Justin Bauer, Brody Ludwig, and Logan Nemmers. The younger runners and throwers are Scott Bormann, Trayton Cink, Schyler Morse, Isaac DeLange, Thadd Kollasch, Daniel Meis, Nick Leerar, Owen Murphy, and Andrew Lichter. Rounding out the group are Amaury Thomas, Lucas Behonek, Carter Schwab, Ethan Marso, Carter McGregor, Kyle Bormann, Kayden Graves, and Tate Foertsch. Good luck, track!

Golf season will also be underway soon. The Golden Bear boys team includes Ethan Kuper, Ben Greteman, Zach Carr, Drew Muller, Sam Greteman, Nick Thul, Gibson Menke, and Brady Galligan. On the girls side Avery Lichter returns from last year’s state championship team. Her teammates this year are Lydia Erpelding, Addison Kuper, Reece Kemna, and Ava Snider. Good luck all season to the golfers!

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Grace Winkelman. Here to tell you about her is Reagan Murphy.

Grace Winkelman comes to Garrigan from the Bancroft area. Her biggest activity at Garrigan is student council, and this year she’s one of two senior representatives in that group. Grace also enjoys working with the campus ministries program, and she was one of the honor students who got an award at the Academic Banquet this past week. Grace plans to attend DMACC next year, where she’d like to major in business. We wish her all the best in the future.

Thanks, Reagan. On this week’s Golden Bear calendar, there’s a junior high quiz bowl tournament at Garrigan today. Then tonight at 7:00 you can see the final performance of Angel in the Night in Friedmann Auditorium.

Monday and Tuesday the seniors will be up at Lake Okoboji for the annual senior retreat. We’ll have a student mass on Tuesday morning, and Wednesday third quarter grades are due.

Friday at 5pm we’ll have the Gala preview party—a chance for people to admire the decorations, look over the items they can bid on, enjoy some great food, and enter special raffles. Then Saturday night is Gala 2023.

That’s the “Bear Facts” for this week. Thanks for tuning in, and be sure to join us again next week when we’ll tell you all about the 34th Gala here at Bishop Garrigan High School.