Good morning! I'm Katie Reding!
Today is a big day at Garrigan. Once again BGHS is hosting the Iowa High School Speech Association district individual contest. Hundreds of students from all over north central Iowa are here at Garrigan today for district speech. This is the twelfth straight year we've hosted the individual contest at Garrigan, and everyone always says it's one of the best-run contests in the state.
Among all the competitors there are twenty-one events featuring Bishop Garrigan students. Kristy McGraine, Codruta Lucuta, Marian Studer, and Mandy Rahm are all competing in Prose at today's contest. In Poetry you can hear Jake Kohlhaas, Dan Bormann, and Wade MacDonald. Wade is also entered in Radio News Announcing, as are Katie Reising, Amanda Freking, and Chris Kohlhaas.
In the Storytelling category you'll find Janet Kramer, Amanda Freking, and Katie Reising. Chris Kohlhaas, Jake Kohlhaas, and Tony Detrick are competing in Improvisational Acting. Julie McGuire and Janet Kramer are entered in Literary Program, and Julie Henkelvig will be performing in Public Address. Finally there's Acting, where Katie Patterson, Angie Kohlhaas, and Tyler Struck are all entered.
We can't say for sure just how the Garrigan entries will do. Between the snow days, time off for conferences, and lots of illnesses, most of the speech students haven't gotten in nearly as much practice as they would have liked. They'll be trying their best today, though, and we certainly wish them all the best. Good luck to Coaches Mary McCall and David Burrow, and to all the speech students--"Break a leg!"
This has been a big week for Golden Bear basketball. Unfortunately things didn't end up the way we'd have liked them to. The girls' season came to an end with a district loss last Saturday. The boys racked up a big victory Tuesday against Britt West Hancock, but then they fell to Pocahontas in the district semi-finals on Thursday night.
The Golden Bear girls had an up-and-down season this year. The biggest star on the floor was junior Angie Froehlich, who averaged 17 points per game, together with 4 steals and 6 assists per game. Sophomore Michelle Vitzthum and senior Liz DeWaard lef the team on defense; each of them had over 7 rebounds and 2 steals per game. Sophomores Kelly Kohlhaas and Sara Reding had the team's highest free throw percentage, followed by freshman Ashley Arndorfer, who also ranked high on the list for two-point baskets. Heather Stence was the top three-point shooter, making almost a third of her attempts. Congratulations to these, and all the 1999 Golden Bear girls!
The season is over for the Golden Bear freshman girls' basketball team. The team finished the year with a 6-2 record, scoring two big wins over St. Ed's, as well as beating West Bend/Mallard, Emmetsburg, Humboldt, and Algona High. Jenna Becker, Mindy Buscher, Heather Fickbohm, and Jamie Loebig were among the top scorers for the freshman girls. Other future stars include Jamie Roethler, Teresa McGuire, Allison Dornbier, Shelley DeVries, and Stephanie Hilbert. Congratulations to the freshmen on an excellent season!
The excitement continues in intramural basketball, as well. Last Sunday there was a big match-up for bragging rights in the junior class. In the end the team led by Joe Lucas beat Eric Becker's team by a final score of 50-35. With two weeks left in the regular season, Jay Servantez's Screaming Stus are still at the head of the pack, with a perfect 6-0 record, followed by a three-way tie for second place.
This week's Senior Spotlight shines on Molly Nelson and Codruta Lucuta.
Molly Nelson is an Algona native who is a member of the National Honor Society. Over the years her activities have included volleyball, basketball, and golf. Molly does well in classes like Accounting, but she's not as big a fan of math. She'll be off to college next year, and we wish her all the best.
Codruta comes to Algona from Romania. This Eastern European native is back at Garrigan for her second straight year as an exchange student. Codruta also plans to attend college in America, and we wish her good luck in the future.
On our Golden Bear calendar, there's district speech today right here at Garrigan. Then tomorrow intramurals continue.
Tuesday and Wednesday there will be kindergarten round-up at the Rochleau Center for the Garrigan Class of 2012. Then on Wednesday night Seton Grade School will have its annual Education Fair, with science, history, English, and art projects displayed all over the school.
The annual Pops Concert will be next Thursday and Friday, with curtain time at 7:30pm. Friday we'll have no school at Garrigan, because of a teacher in-service.
Finally next Saturday a group of Garrigan students will head down to Iowa City for the University of Iowa mathematics competition.
That's the "Bear Facts" for February. Thanks for listening, and be sure to join us again next week to hear more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.
