The Ram Page

October 13, 2023

Bi-Weekly Newsletter for Garces Families, Students, Alumni & Friends

Catholic Ed Convention

October 13

Ramchella

October 13

PSAT Testing

Oct. 18

Follow us on our social media sites to stay up to date on the latest updates from Garces Memorial

After Mass on Monday in Monsignor Leddy Hall, Garces Memorial held a surprise retirement ceremony for Mr. Bob Zeimet, who retired in June after 19 years teaching at Garces and a total of 59 years as an educator in Bakersfield.

With two dozen family members in the audience for Mr. Zeimet, Principal Leon spoke kindly of his career in education and read a letter from Bishop Brennan, who declared Oct. 9 "Robert Zeimet Day" at Garces Memorial.

Jessica Janssen, a representative from Assemblyman Vince Fong's office, presented Mr. Zeimet with a resolution as Mr. Fong was a student of Mr. Zeimet's at West High School.

The entire student body, faculty and staff then offered up another big surprise by lining a walkway from MLH to the teacher's lounge giving high-fives celebrating his incredible career.

Watch the video until the end for a special message to Mr. Zeimet from a local dignitary and read the article about the ceremony from The Bakersfield Californian.

Last Friday night was electric on campus for Homecoming 2023. All four classes performed skits at halftime. The theme this year was Happy HOCO Holidays. The freshman class was patriotic with a Fourth of July theme while the sophomores' holiday was Valentine's Day with love in the air. The juniors had that holiday spirit with a Christmas -themed skit decked out with Santa and Buddy The Elf. But those three fell short of the title to the incredible Halloween skit put on by the seniors that ended with a dance rendition by the Ghostbusters.

Congratulations to our Homecoming Court this year with freshman prince Bryce Hanson and princess Michelle Antongiovanni. The sophomore prince and princess were Gunter Golla and Olivia Garcia. The junior prince was Logan Slaton and princess Bella Chavez.

The senior court princes were Kaegan McCarthy, Michael Baninge and Caedan Towery. The princesses were Gemma Eddy, Jade Jamieson and Jocelyn Sala.

And congratulations to Isaiah Chrisco and Stella Holland, who were named the 2023 Homecoming King and Queen.

Thank you Mrs. Thompson and the entire crew of faculty, staff and Garces Memorial parents who spent countless hours helping our students all week preparing for what was one the most exciting Homecoming nights in recent memory.

On Wednesday morning in MLH, Garces Memorial presented the 2023-24 Fall Awards, honoring the top students in English, Math, PLTW Pathways, Science, Social Studies, Theology, Visual and Performing Art and World Language, along with the top scholar and GPA Awards.

There were 27 students honored by the department chairs, along with Principal Leon and Assistant Principal Limi, after an opening prayer by Father David Lopez.

The Shadow Days have been so popular we have added an additional day in October. On Shadow Days your student will be matched with a current student who will act as their host for the day. The visitors will "shadow" which means attend class with the Garces student, break and lunch. Eighth grade students will be matched with a current freshman, current high school students looking to transfer will be matched with a student in the same grade. Click here to sign up.

Ram for a Day is a fun day for all 8th graders from our community. Our 8th grade guests will be treated to a day of demonstrations, scavenger hunt, Garces trivia, tours. a "Future Ram" t-shirt and lunch. Parents can also attend and take a tour of the campus and learn more from our administrative team on our mission and holistic approach to their student's education. You must register in advance so please don't wait!

Click here to register your 8th grader.

Cross Country

The Rams were off this week after competing at the first league meet at the end of September and will compete in the second league meet at Riverwalk Park on Wednesday. On the girls side, the Rams are currently ranked No. 6 in Division V in the Central Section.

Football

The Rams head into Saturday's Mission Bowl at Bakersfield Christian looking to snap a two-game losing streak. Garces (2-5, 0-2) has the fifth-toughest schedule in the Central Section and the five teams the Rams have lost to are a combined 31-3. This marks the seventh meeting versus BCHS with the series tied 3-3. JV kickoff is at 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. for varsity.

Girls Golf

In the sixth River League meet on Wednesday, Garces finished second with a team score of 476, just behind a 473 by Liberty at Rio Bravo Country Club. Ashlee Kresha finished second overall with an 8-over-80 to lead Garces. The Rams remain in first place in league with one regular season league meet left.

Girls Tennis

Thursday was Senior Day for our eight varsity girls tennis seniors. That group includes six that have been on varsity all four years in high school. These seniors have played in the Central Section Division I finals all three of the previous years, including taking home the title the past two seasons. The Rams finished the league slate with a 6-2 record and are in line for a top-three seed in the D-I playoffs that begin on Oct. 24. Next week, the Rams will participate in the River League singles and doubles tournament.

Volleyball

The Rams forced a fifth set on Thursday at Bakersfield Christian with a 28-26 fourth set, but Garces was not able to complete the comeback in a 3-2 loss. Next week is the final two games of the regular season. We will celebrate our four seniors before the Thursday night game against Stockdale.

Water Polo

After going 4-1 at the AG Fall Classic on the Central Coast last weekend, the varsity girls water polo team (15-8, 5-0) remained undefeated in league with wins over Stockdale and Liberty this week. On the boys side, the Rams (13-6, 5-0) also went 2-0 this week and will head to the prestigious Steve Pal Invitational in Orange County next weekend.

Garces Memorial Athletics is pleased to announce Philip Arias as the new boys soccer head of program.

Arias takes over the program following five successful seasons under Hassan Halevy and Robbie Gouk, who both stepped down this summer.

Arias has been a high school boys soccer coach for 15 years, including the past five as the head coach for Liberty High School.

“We were fortunate to have a handful of qualified candidates for the program head position and after multiple interviews with prospective candidates it became clear that Phillip Arias emerged as the best fit for our boys soccer program,” Garces Memorial Athletic Director Eric Coleman said. “Throughout his interview process Coach Arias demonstrated the type of integrity, organizational management, knowledge and energy that we were looking for to lead our boys soccer program. Coach Arias spoke at great length of the culture he plans to create goals for the program and its players as well as, building relationships with parents, players and alumni as the program head.”

Arias is highly regarded in Kern County as one of the top soccer minds that leads his players on and off the field. Whether it be his hard-working mentality to the sport of soccer, or mentoring his players to continue to strive in the classroom and give back to the community through service hours, Arias is a welcomed addition to Garces Memorial.

“I am thankful for the opportunity to take over such a great program,” Arias said. “I am looking forward to what the future holds for Garces Memorial boys soccer.”

In a weekly installment that will run the rest of the school year, we will honor a faculty member here at Garces Memorial every Tuesday.

Both of these fantastic teachers had a big hand in Homecoming this year with Mrs. Thompson overseeing the entire night as the Assistant Principal of Student Life and Ms. Salazar was named this year's female Teacher Sweetheart.

Check out the video below to see what a wonderful night we had on our campus! Thank you to everyone who made it possible - especially our BBQ committee, BBQ crew and our wonderful volunteers. In the next newsletter, we will share with you what we raised for the school and will have links to all the photos we took - including the photos from the photo booth. Thank you to Matthew Reynolds Photography for the outstanding video - he really captured the night!

2023 Holy Smoke BBQ Committee

• Bill Potter '97 - Co-Chair
• Joe Etcheverry '94 - Co-Chair
• Jeff Etcheverry '02 - Pitt Master
• Jared Lane '96
• Tom McCarthy
• Molly Antongiovanni '12

• Lexi Clerou '06
• Santos Gutierrez
• Dan Hoekstra
• Philip McDermott '04
• Jenny Asaro
• Lou Ann Durrett

2023 Hall of Honor

Thursday, November 16

Luigi's Warehouse

Get your tickets for the 2023 Hall of Honor.! This year's inductees are:

• Damon Culbertson
• Steve Lewis '64
• Rich Romo '70
• Jeremy Tobias '84

The Alumni Award recipient is the Mike & Laura Etcheverry Family.

The Garces Alumni Board is hard at work to make it a memorable evening. Members of the Alumni Board are Chairman Gregg Gunner '66; Cindy (Duncan) Lynch '68, Mary (Loken) Cornett '68, Tom Swertfager '69, Jim Sakowski '70, Melissa Fortune '72, Carolyn Antongiovanni '72, Mike Georgino '75, George Clerou '76, Katie (Anspach) Whittington '77, Bernadette (Eyherabide) Root '78, Raji Sanghera '87, Maria (Bernal) Toretta '88, Courtney (Kirschenmann) Tobias '92, Lexi (Antongiovanni) Clerou '06, and John Moore III '07.

• Bruce Beretta & Melissa Fortune
• A+ Shredding/Joe Antongiovanni
• Jim & Debbie Sakowski
• Jenny Poncetta & Christiane Camou
• Jennifer Lewis
• Mike & Shelley Georgino
• Gregg Gunner
• Steven & Janet Antongiovanni
• Raji Sanghera
• Kari & Steve Anderson
• Mary Trichell
• Tom Anchordoquy

• Kathy Gargan
• George & Sandy Clerou
• Bernadette Root
• Germaine & Chris Jacobs
• Moneywise Wealth Management
• Mission Bank
• Eleanor Etcheverry
• Paige Etcheverry-Barnes
• Nanette & John Etcheverry
• Tom & Mary Berry