Day: April 3, 2015

Brandywine Ice Hockey

Posted By under Sports

By: Dan Ketler, Lion’s Eye Staff Editor, dmk5614@psu.edu

The 2014-2015 Penn State Brandywine Ice Hockey season has come to an end, after a long and hard fought journey. The club team won the regular-season championship with an impressive seventeen wins and six losses. They advanced to the Delaware Valley Collegiate Hockey Conference Playoffs (DVCHC) as the top seed. The team dominated the playoffs and went on to compete in a best of three championship series against Rutgers.

The series halted at a 1-1 tie and was headed into a third and final game, but the Lion’s senior goalie, Andrew Hieber, suffered a slightly torn MCL and was unable to play in the championship. With no back up goalie to fill in, the Lion’s were unfortunately forced to forfeit the championship to Rutgers. The team was plagued with multiple roster issues throughout the season and this continued to be a challenge for the Lions as the season went on even in the earlier stages of the season.

“Basically, we headed into our season knowing it was going to be a rough road because of the amount of players we had,” junior defensemen Frank Leonardo said. “We started practicing in September with only fourteen players and one goalie.”

This proved to serve as a bad omen for the team when they reached the championship and their lone goalie was injured.

“Our goalie hurt his knee in Sunday’s game and we were waiting for a second opinion on the severity of the injury. He has a 30% tear in his MCL and he is done for the season.” Brandywine’s Head Coach Paul Gilligan stated, “our season is over.”

This was Coach Gilligan’s 12th season coaching the Lions and he has done a tremendous job leading them to victory. Gilligan had helped lead Brandywine to the American Conference Tournament every season and led the team to DVCHC title in 2012. Despite the 2014-2015 season’s unfortunate turn of events, the team worked hard and did the best they could with their roster issues.

Leonardo added, “Tough ending to a tough and hard fought season.”

One thing that is certain is that Lion’s Ice Hockey has a promising future. Nearly half the team is comprised of freshman including the team’s leading goal scorer, Jonathan Thompson. Thompson and his teammates plan to regroup in the offseason and return to the 2016 championship with a vengeance.

Many students at Brandywine are unaware of the fact that the school has an ice hockey team. They are a club team—which means they are funded through student activity fees rather than the school itself. They usually play at Ice Works in Aston or Ice Line in West Chester. Silently, the team has been working hard and going on various championship runs to make the Penn State Brandywine community proud.

Although the Lion’s Ice Hockey squad was struck with an unfortunate injury from which they were unable to recover, a heart-broken Brandywine Ice Hockey team will plan to regroup in the offseason and return stronger than ever, for the 2015-2016 season, to capture the DVCHC crown. Be sure to be on the look out for next years schedule to cheer on Brandywine’s Ice Hockey team.

Brandywine First-Timers react to THON weekend

Posted By under Op/Ed

By: Paul Alberici. Lion’s Eye Staff Editor, paa5102@psu.edu 

THON weekend is considered by many Penn State students to be one of the best weekends of the year and THON 2015 was no different.

For many people from Penn State Brandywine, this was their first time experiencing the impactful weekend. THON brings Penn State students from all across the commonwealth together to celebrate the end of the fundraising year with the Four Diamonds’ families.

“My reaction (to THON weekend) was breathtaking,” said Samantha Dimarco, a freshman at Penn State Brandywine, who has plans to transfer to University Park in the fall and hopes to be on the dancer relations committee. “The entire thing left me speechless.”

Brandywine had one of its biggest fundraising years to date, raising a record-breaking $40.952.11; the total moved them up to the #7 slot for highest fundraising effort among commonwealth campuses. Part of that success was attributed to the number of consistent members the group had, which was even higher than last year. Many of these new members were freshman and sophomores who had a rough idea as to what THON was about.

“I had seen people canning in the streets before,” said Allyson Pyle, a Penn State Brandywine sophomore. “But I never knew how big the organization was until I got to Brandywine. I regret not joining sooner!”

It seems that every member who went to THON this year enjoyed a different aspect of the weekend, from the line dance which is new each year to seeing how much fun the kids were having. But there was one aspect of the weekend almost every member loves.

“Family Hour (was) definitely (my favorite part),” said Derek Osborn. “It just showed me everything that we’re doing for the kids does make an impact, it does change lives and none of the hard work we put into it is wasted.”

Family hour is the time near the end of the weekend where Four Diamonds’ families come and tell their stories of dealing with cancer, sometimes with their child by their side and other times with only a picture to hold and tears in their eyes. This part of the weekend is capped off with a slideshow of many of the children who are no longer alive after losing their battle to cancer. This portion of the weekend serves as motivation to continue fighting for a cure.

THON has a two-part mission: to provide financial and emotional support to all the families as well as to spread awareness as to what they do and why it is important to help out. Although each THON member dedicates their effort and commitment to the children of the Four Diamonds Fund, some members have a much more personal reason to join in the fight to defeat pediatric cancer.

“I THON not only for all of the kids out there and their families who need our help and positivity to better their futures, but also for some people in my life who have been affected by cancer, specifically my Pop, my Uncle Ray, Brayden Chandler who lived up the street and my friend Mike Gade.” Casey Algeo, a sophomore with plans to attend University Park this coming fall and hopes to join the dancer relations committee, said, “These people are the main reasons why I THON and will continue to THON after my college experience comes to an end. In my personal opinion, there should never be an end to helping people, specifically those who are affected by a horrible disease such as cancer.”

With the book now closed on the THON 2015 fundraising season, many members are eager for next year to start so they can get back to work.

“Because of THON weekend I just want to do even more for these kids,” Osborn said. “I’m going to give it my all next year and try to raise as much money as I can for these kids!”

It is this type of dedication and excitement that keeps veteran THON members hopeful for the future. As long as this chain of dedication continues with new members, THON will continue to be successful for years to come.

A Trip Into the Anime Club

Posted By under Entertainment

By: Michael McCarrick, Lion’s Eye Staff Writer, mqm5415@psu.edu

Bored with conventional TV programs? Then explore a more creative part of fiction with the big colorful world of anime and check out the anime club. Now sure, most students used to traditional animation will probably cringe at how weird and violent the content in anime shows can be, but it should be noted that those who grew up watching cartoons like Pokemon, Powerpuff Girls, and Avatar: The Last Airbender, might not realize that those were American shows influenced by Asian anime culture.

The club is comprised of a small group of students who sit back and watch their favorite anime show with the dialogue redubbed to sound more hilarious on a Youtube channel. Attack on Titan, a brilliant, yet depressing, anime show about a war between giant “Titan” monsters and a young group of soldiers defending their city, has its dialogue redubbed from intensely serious to laugh-out-loud funny. Another club meeting presented an anime which also does the same dialogue dub in Tokyo Ghoul Abridge; another dark anime about supernatural diseases spreading into humans and turning them into creatures (creatures who, of course, can grow out tentacles, because it’s anime).

Anime club leader and student Julia Gallagher perfectly simplifies the purpose of the club which is,“to watch anime.”

She followed that up with the statement, “I don’t force people to watch certain anime, it’s more of a place to relax, and they can still go on computers and do their own thing.”

So even if a student isn’t interested in watching anime they can still get some privacy in the dark room and work on any of the computers available. Students are allowed to choose pretty much whatever anime they want to because of the vast archive of anime available on YouTube and Crunchyroll. Those who aren’t as experienced in the genre can get help from the club members who can recommend shows to watch and try to make sense out of it.

For older students who might have grown up watching Cartoon Network shows like Naruto, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Dragon Ball Z, they can visit the anime club to rediscover the genre that inspired their childhood and become more enlightened by those type of cartoons.

Club meetings take place every Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in room 205 in the Main Building. If there’s a place that is perfect for unwinding and being entertained for a little while during a busy day, it’s the anime club.