Good morning! I'm John Mosbach!
I'm Katie Patterson!
And I'm Ed Elbert! You're listening to the "Bear Facts," the weekly radio show from Bishop Garrigan High School.
The girls' track team is in Des Moines this weekend for the state track meet. Yesterday junior Angie Froehlich competed in the high jump, and the Bears are entered in five other events at state today. At 9:00 this morning Heather Stence, Ashley Arndorfer, Teresa McGuire, and Angie Kohlhaas will be running in the 4 by 800-meter relay, and then at 10:15 it's time for the sprint medley with Deanna Kohlhaas, Liz DeWaard, Mandy Roethler, and Heather Stence. At 10:55 Sara Seeley will compete in the 400-meter hurdles, and then at 2:35 this afternoon Heather Stence will be featured in the 800-meter run. The last Garrigan event is at 4:10 this afternoon, when Teresa McGuire runs the mile. The state track meet is at Drake University in Des Moines, and we encourage everyone to go down and cheer on the Bears!
The Golden Bear golf teams have been having a great spring, too. We're proud to say that both the boy and girl Golden Bears are the district champions in golf. Last Friday the boys went down to Pocahontas to win their district championship, and then on Monday the girls hosted districts at Spring Valley and ended up on top of the pack. Congratulations to both the boys' and girls' golf teams, and best wishes to them along the play-off road.
Last Sunday sixty-three members of the Class of 1999 received their diplomas and left Garrigan for the last time. There were the usual tears--like when the senior choir members sang their farewell song--as well as some light moments--like when Mr. Stence got a big hug from Matt Buscher as he walked across the stage. Probably the most touching moment and the biggest round of applause came when Father Broderson stepped down from the stage and handed a diploma to senior Melissa McGuire. You may remember tha Melissa was paralyzed in a serious accident last fall. She's been working hard, both on her assignments and in recovering her movement, and everyone was delighted to see her graduate with her classmates.
More than half of the Class of '99 received a variety of scholarships from local families and organizations. Among those were the Ronald Armstrong Scholarship, which went to Jason Kohlhaas; the Kathy Jo Rahm Scholarship, which went to Abby Rahm; the Justine Becker Scholarship, which went to Alicia Arndorfer; the Daniel Bernhard Scholarship, which went to Michael Bernhard; the Bernard Meister Scholarship, which went to Jeremy Bartolo; the Erickson/Kramer Scholarship, which went to Phil Kramer; the Joan Duffy Scholarship, which went to Abby Rahm and Kristin Grunwaldt; the Tony Lane Scholarship, which went to Sarah Hall; and the Father Conway Memorial Scholarship, which went to Lisa Rasmussen.
Andrew Brunsen and Abby Rahm were honored with the Iowa Bar Association Citizenship Award, Katie REding received the Rotary Service Award, and Abby Rahm was honored by the Daughters of the American Revolution. Melissa McGuire was commended as a National Merit Scholar, while Maria Loebach and Rachel Studer were State of Iowa Scholars. Mike Reel received the Principal's Award for combining academics, leadership, and community service, and he also got another big honor when a representative from the United States Naval Academy officially presented him with his commission to Anapolis.
Each department at Garrigan honors their top students at graduation. This year's business award went to Libby Wingert and Katie Reding; while Lisa Kollasch and Abby Monson won awards in English. Corduta Lucuta won the composition award, Kristi Patten was honored in journalism, and Rachel Studer received the award for speech. Foreign language honors went to Paul McNertney and Abby Monson, while Libby Wingert earned the math award. Melanie McGuire was the top social studies student, and she shared science honors with Katie Reding. Rachel Studer, Libby Wingert, Katie Reding, and Abby Rahm all received awards for religion, and Abby also won both the instrumental and vocal music awards. Jake Sutter was honored as the top art student, and Brad Servantez won the art department's prestigious "Service Above Self" award.
The rest of the big end-of-the-year honors were in sports. Each year the Mason City Globe-Gazette honors its "Athletes of the Year". It's no surprise that Adam Sundall represents was Garrigan's top athlete this year. He was joined on the list by Katie Reding. The Algona Officials Association presented their award to Ben and Abbey Studer. Jeremy Bartolo, Mark Anderson, and Molly Nelson shared the G-Club Award, while Phil Kramer, Andrew Brunsen, and Liz DeWaard split the Pride Club honors. Phil Kramer and Katie Reding were named this year's Outstanding Student Athletes, while the Bernie Saggau Award went to Phil LaFleur. Doug Besch and Liz DeWaard received the National Scholar/Athlete Award, and the Marine Corps Distinguished Athlete Award was presented to Mike Reel. Congratulations to all these honorees!
We've featured the entire senior class in our spotlight this year, but there are two juniors we'd like to salute before the year is out. They're exchange students Pavel Jekov and Alejandro Isidro. Here's John to fill you in on them.
Pavel and Alex have added a lot of life to the hallways of Garrigan this year. Pavel came to Algona from a little town near Sofia, Bulgaria, while Alex came from the big city of Madrid, Spain. Alex has been living with Gail McNertney and her son Paul, while Alex has spent the past year with the Forburger family--including Garrigan students Nicole and Josh. When they came here, neither Alex nor Pavel knew much of any English, and it was really hard to get to know them. We're happy to say that their language skills have improved a lot over the past year, and both students have gotten so Americanized that they're planning to come back to this country. Pavel plans to go to colelge in Seattle next year, while Alex wants to come back here to Garrigan for his senior year. Best wishes to both of these exchange students.
On our Golden Bear calendar, there's the girls' state track meet today in Des Moines. Be sure tocome on down to Drake to cheer the Bears on to victory.
Tomorrow is the Feast of Pentecost. Then on Monday there's girls' regional golf. Also Monday night is the annual track awards potluck.
Baseball season begins next week. It all starts on Tuesday, with the Bears hosting the traditional season-opening double-header against West Bend/Mallard.
There's more baseball on Wednesday, with the Bears hosting Estherville. Then on Thursday final exams begin. We'll have a special schedule, where everyone has open campus during the periods when they don't have tests.
The baseball team travels to Bancroft to play North Kossuth on Thursday night. Then on Friday the Bears will travel Spencer. Also on Friday boys' state track begins.
That's the "Bear Facts" for another week. We'll be back one last time next week. So be sure to join us then as we wrap up the year here at Bishop Garrigan High School.
