The RamPage

October 21, 2022

October 24th

Jostens Class Rings

Meeting

October 25th

BSU Haunted House

October 26th

Fog Delay

Fall Awards Assembly

October 28th

Houchin Heartbeats

Blood Drive

October 28th

Socktober Drive Ends

October 29th

Rambotics roBOOtics SPOOKtacular Competition

Dear Garces Families,

Below is a list of the families who gave to our Annual Fund this school year. We are so grateful for your support and generosity. We charge tuition below the actual cost per student because our Catholic mission calls for us to be as financially accessible as possible. However, we can only do this if we receive contributions to the Annual Fund to help "bridge the gap." Your willingness to help really makes a difference. Thank you!

I will be candid here and share that I had been hoping for a much better response from our parent community to our Annual Fund appeal. I will reflect upon this and see where I can improve my communications and outreach. Please know that Garces runs very lean. We try to keep our expenses as low as possible. Even so, we need to raise significant revenue through donations to balance the budget. I am still hopeful that we may yet meet our budget goals for this school year, but that is going to be difficult to do and much will depend upon the success of our Gala auction in February.

I ask that parents who chose to not support the Annual Fund also bring this to reflection. In my short time at Garces, I have come to appreciate the generosity of this community when it comes to supporting programs of personal interest. Thank you for this. There are needs, however, that extend beyond, for example, a given athletic program. As I shared in my Annual Fund appeal communications to you, one significant need we have is to compensate our faculty and staff more fairly. It is just not right that these dedicated people who care so deeply for our students receive only a small raise every other year. And, speaking more practically, a great way to address the teacher shortage is to keep the outstanding teachers a school already has. I am committed to doing more for our outstanding faculty and staff and I ask the parent community as a whole to join me in these efforts.  

Blessings,

Kent Hickey

Garces President

Check out our Homecoming Game video highlights! Click on the video below and enjoy. It was a great night on our campus! 

Our Homecoming Rally was full of fun surprises and some of our favorite traditions - the "wake-up" video and the royalty court catwalk - won by the teacher sweethearts Mr. Mark Detloff and Mrs. Becky Meek. We had some great games, a dance competition, a cheer performance, and the return of the faculty & staff "fathead" dance! As usual, our ASB Commissioners of Entertainment, Sara Wiswall and Paul Pacheco, did a great job keeping the crowd hyped! Thank you ASB Leadership Class and Mrs. Caitlin Thompson for another great day on our campus. The rally almost blew the roof off the gym! 

Our Homecoming Court included a prince and princess from the freshman, sophomore, and junior classes; four princes and princesses from the senior class; and a male and female teacher - our "Teacher Sweethearts" voted on by the student body. The students voted for Mrs. Meek and Mr. Detloff, two of the sweetest and kindest teachers on our campus. At every homecoming game, the crowd waits to see who will be crowned King and Queen. The crowd roared when Avi Borba and Paul Pacheco were named Queen and King. 

Homecoming Queen Avi Borba &

Homecoming King Paul Pacheco

Teacher Sweethearts Mrs. Becky Meek &

Mr. Mark Detloff

Senior Princess Evie McCarthy & Senior Prince Jack Gerow

Senior Princess Shalom Shittu & Senior Prince Josh Braun

 Senior Princess Kylee Limpias & Senior Prince Julian Smith

Junior Princess Emme Roberts  & Junior Prince Johnny Starr

Sophomore Princess Emma Mercado & Sophomore Prince Luke Napier

Freshman Princess Tysen Huff & Freshman Prince Jagger Renteria

This year's theme was Rams on the Road, and each class selected a different city to plan their homecoming halftime skit around. This year's skits were terrific; we were so pleased to see many students participating. The backdrops, choreography, costumes, and props were all on point. We could all tell that each class put in a lot of hours of work and it showed. Great jobs Rams! You made this year's homecoming game halftime show one for the history books. Congratulations to the Senior Class on coming in first place! 

Senior Class - New York

Junior Class - New Orleans

Sophomore Class - Honolulu

Freshman Class - Nashville

Our student section, The Herd, our pep band, and our cheer squad are an amazing group of students who exhibit a tremendous amount of school spirit and make attending our games so much fun! 

The theme for the Homecoming Dance was Las Vegas, and the ASB Leadership Class went all out! They transformed MLH, set up tables for students to play Vegas-themed games, and had a great photo booth complete with Vegas-themed props! The room was perfectly decorated, and the DJ had the kids on the dance floor the entire night. 

Shadow Days - October 4th - December 8th

Registration is open on our website for future Rams to sign up for a Shadow Day to experience a "Day in the Life" as a Garces Ram. Future Rams are paired up with a current student who shares similar interests. Future Rams are also able to request whom they would like to shadow for the day. 

Ram for a Day - Wednesday, November 16th

All 8th graders who are interested in attending Garces next year are invited to come to our Ram for a Day. It is an opportunity to meet future Rams from other schools who are also looking at Garces for their high school experience. 

Hear from Allison Martin, Class of 2022, about her four years as a Garces Ram. Allison is currently a freshman at Grand Canyon University. For anyone considering Garces, we are encouraging them to schedule a Shadow Day to experience a "Day in the Life" of a Garces Ram.

Click on the video below.

We Need You!

This year's Gala will be held on Saturday, February 25, 2023, and the theme will incorporate the celebration of our school's 75th anniversary.  

Past, Present & Future

We would love to have past Gala volunteers, parents who presently have students attending Garces Memorial, and future families join us in the planning process. Our veteran Gala volunteers will be on hand to mentor our newcomers. We welcome all to bring to the "Gala table" new and fresh ideas that will make this year's event one everyone will want to attend!

Please contact Tonya Abbott for more information if you are interested in donating your time, talents, and resources. We will begin meeting in November to start planning what will be a fantastic event for Garces Memorial.

FFA Greenhand Conference

Last week, we had 23 of our FFA students attend the Greenhand Leadership Conference to learn about what it means to be an FFA member and how to become a better leader. The students who attended were: Gabriella Bartolotti, Alex Billings, Joselyn Cortez, Joseph Deniz, Madi Garcia, Esme Gohn-Rosales, Tatum Harper, Gabriella Howard-Hernandez, Claire Jimenez, Kaylynn Killion, Gino LaFever, Emma Machado, Marian Mora, Drew Reed, Presley Reed, Pablo Rodriguez, Hope Shaw, Jules Struzyna, Alaura Townsend, Braden Turman, Luke Watts, Kate Wegis, and Kaiya Wilson.

Supplies Needed for BSU Haunted House

Black Student Union (BSU) is a student lead organization under the leadership of Jayla Ward, President; Alyse Brooks, Secretary; and JJ Ward, Treasurer. As a new club, these students are doing some amazing things and have many other great ideas for the school year. The first event is in collaboration with the Latino and Hispanic Heritage Club. Both clubs will host the 1st annual Garces Haunted House! The event will take place on Tuesday, October 25th from 7 pm - 9 pm. For this event, we are looking for some donations on materials. If you would like to make any donation of the following items or donate any of your time, please reach out to club moderator, Mrs. Edwards at sedwards@garces.org. The students are looking forward to this event and hope to make it a new Garces tradition.

Donation List:

• Boxes of 30-gallon trash bags or black tarp like materials
• Spider webs
• Spooky decor
• Boxes of any size (We will take those Amazon boxes!)
• Pallets
• Duct tape
• Easy Ups/Canopies
• Rope

Upcoming College Visits

Tuesday, November 8, 2022 - University of Oregon

10:45 AM-11:30 AM (PST)

In-Person Visit

Girls Golf League Champions - 

Bella Burks, Ivana Escobar, Malia Giumarra, Ashlee Kresha, Abbigail Rogers, and

Hailey Shaw

Girls Tennis League Singles Champion -

Kelsey Abraham

Sports Update

Provided by Trevor Horn, Sports Information Director

It’s nearing the end of October and the weather seems to finally be changing into the fall this weekend. That means it’s the playoff push around Garces Athletics and we have four league championship teams and three individual league champions this season.

Cross Country

The Rams finished up River League action Wednesday at the second of two league meets.

Football

What a great Homecoming it was all around, and it capped off with a 30-13 win over Bakersfield Christian. The Rams rushed for a season-high 364 yards and the defense recorded three turnovers as Juju Smith intercepted a pass and Nathaniel Wallace had an interception and a fumble recovery. Quarterback Jordan Gallegoz had a career-high 149 rushing yards. Tonight, the Rams are at Centennial with JV at 5 p.m. and varsity slated for 7:30. Next week is Senior Night against Stockdale. The Rams (2-6, 0-2) need one more win to secure a playoff spot over the next two games. (The new playoff criteria enacted this season is a minimum of three games to advance).

Girls Golf

The Rams once again cemented themselves as the top team in Kern County. After sweeping all of the regular season league meets, Garces took home the league championship on Tuesday at North Kern Golf Course. Hailey Shaw led the way with an 81 and Malia Giumarra shot an 86. Along with Bella Burks, Ashlee Kresha, Abigail Rogers and Ivana Escobar, the Rams earned the automatic bid to the Central Section championships on Oct. 31 in San Luis Obispo.

Girls Tennis

The Rams will most likely be named the No. 1 seed when the Division I section playoffs are announced later today. (Be sure to check @GarcesAthletics on Twitter for updates). Earlier this week, Garces hosted the league singles and doubles championships. All nine Rams in competition earned a bid to the South Area qualifiers on Nov. 4-5, including singles champion Kelsey Abraham and doubles champions Kylee Limpias and Jocie Sala. The team playoffs begin Tuesday.

On the JV side, the Rams finished the season undefeated while Ivy Lince won the league singles title and Lizzi Ansolabehere and Natalia Eddy won the doubles championship.

Volleyball

The Central Section playoffs will be announced later today and the Rams did themselves a huge favor with a resounding 3-1 road win at Stockdale to end the regular season. The Rams are ranked No. 43 in the section. Garces is based in D-II and can only drop down to D-III, unlike last season. There are 40 spots in the top three divisions, but there are four teams ahead of the Rams that are D-V base and can only move as high as D-IV. (The new playoff criteria is teams can play in their base division or move one up or one down from that base).

Water polo

With just two regular season games remaining, both varsity teams are undefeated and won the outright league championships. Senior Night is Wednesday against Stockdale. The varsity boys are in Orange County this weekend at the prestigious Steve Pal Invitational and the JV teams are hosting the first JV tournament in Kern County history for water polo today and tomorrow with nine schools around the section competing in the Salvucci Aquatic Center.  

In Our Prayers

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.

May they rest in peace. Amen.

Erik Felix '00

Son of Garces alumna Sally (Dominguez) Felix '74 and her husband Michael, and brother of Paul Felix '96. 

The Class of 1967 held their reunion at Wool Growers on Saturday night. Deborah (Cerri) Leary '67 organized the reunion for her classmates. They had such good time, they have decided to have a Reunion Dinner every year and will meet again on Saturday, October 21, 2023. 

Front Row: Marcia Eyherabide, Bill McCann, Deborah Knowleton, Michele Matlock Borel, Martha Sill Lane; Second Row: Jayne Kovacevich, Deborah Cerri Leary, Mary Ward Noel, Patti Clerou White; Third Row: Phyllis Wachob,(in red blouse) Katy Hanson, Kay Wattenbarger Barnes, Joan Pogon Cord; Back Row: Tom Lemoine, John Seymour, Michael Bayne, Steve Berchtold, Tom Phillips, Bill Swertfager, Rick Roux, John Lightsey, John Apperson, Vince Fanucchi.