This coming September, soon to be varsity athlete Stefanie Hrymak will be playing for Mohawk College’s women’s basketball team, the Mohawk Mountaineers.

Stefanie comes from Westdale Secondary, where she balanced her school work with her basketball. She was a part of Westdale’s basketball team for all four of her years there.

Hrymak said the reason she chose Mohawk College was because she wanted a really good program, but she also wanted to play basketball.

Getting accepted into the Health, Wellness, and Fitness program at Mohawk was a perfect fit. Not only does it allow for training in her desired career as a physical therapist, but will also give her the chance to be part of a college basketball team.

Hrymak has been playing basketball since she was in grade two, giving her a decade of experience.

When she decided on Mohawk, her Westdale Basketball Coach Nadia Flynn e-mailed Mohawk’s Head Coach Kevin Duffy to let him know of Stef’s upcoming presence at Mohawk in September.

Duffy went to scout one of Hrymak’s Westdale games, but Hrymak says the pressure of a potential future coach in the stands didn’t make her nervous, “I just played the way I play.”

Duffy was impressed, and Hrymak’s play earned her a spot as one of the team’s new recruits, at shooting guard.

“I enjoy the sport (basketball) so much, I hope it goes somewhere after (college),” Hrymak said.

As if playing for the varsity team weren’t enough, Hrymak says she’s really excited to see and use the facilities at the new David Braley Athletics and Recreation Centre, scheduled to be opening in September,.

As the new school year approaches, many of the varsity teams are already on the lookout for new recruits.

From curling to soccer, many coaches are looking for new players to add to their already outstanding teams.

 With many athletes moving on after graduation, the woman’s soccer team is going to need strong players in order to achieve the same success as the previous team.

Last year, the team received a number of awards including the OCAA League Record, and OCAA League All Star awards for Hagen and Shelby Dawdy. In addition, Ashley Hagen was named OCAA Overall Athlete of the Week in September of 2012.

Now that she has graduated, stopper Jody Hagen can look back on her achievements as an athlete.

“One of my greatest accomplishments as an athlete has been making the Mohawk soccer team and as a rookie getting the all-Canadian academic award and coaches award”

But those achievements didn’t come easily. As is the case for every varsity athlete, Hagen had to balance athletics with school.

“Balancing school work, practices and games was difficult, but our coach Renzo was really good about it. Whenever I had to work he was ok with us missing a practice or two, and we only had a game a week so I just had to learn to prioritize all my school work”

Since Hagen has graduated this year, she will not be returning to the woman’s varsity soccer team. But that won’t keep Hagen away from the sidelines cheering on the new 2013 varsity woman’s soccer team.

“I am excited to be able go out and watch their games as I know the team will be full of a lot of new girls, a lot of girls from the team this year have graduated”.

If you think you have what it takes, it is not too late to try out; the women’s soccer team is starting tryouts August 20^th. For a full list of dates go to www.mohawkcollege.ca/athletics.

An artist’s conception of the soon-to-be-finished David Braley Athletic and Recreation Centre.

Due to the development of the new recreation centre, on-campus construction has been an inconvenience this year, But once construction is complete in September, the new David Braley Athletic and Recreation Centre promises to  offer a host of opportunities.

For starters, the Centre will host the Women’s Basketball Provincial Championship in February 2014. This event will attract spectators from across Ontario, as well as the media, to the Fennell campus. The old gym would not have been big enough to host this championship as eight teams will be competing, four from the west and four from the east, explained athletics officer Bernetta Scime.

Also starting in September, the Centre will be home to a Volleyball Centre of Excellence. Through Volleyball Canada, registered high school students will get a chance to improve at the sport while enjoying the other great features of this new facility, including an outdoor trail, indoor running track, six change rooms and a café for socializing.

“It will be a great opportunity for athletes to showcase their skills and a great experience for the fans,” said Michelle Ball, the director of Student Engagement and Athletics.

It will serve not only as a place for sporting events, but also as a destination for students and faculty to exercise and mingle. “I think we’ll have to worry about students skipping class to be there,” joked MSA President Ryan Chow.

The Centre is expected to open in September of 2013. It was named after Senator David Braley after he generously donated $3 million to the Fennell Campus Renewal Project on June 7^th of this year.

There are just a couple of months until Mohawk College welcomes its varsity sports teams back to action. Some athletes will be returning for another chance to shine and show off their skills, but for others, September will be their first chance to try to get their name on the back of a Mountaineers jersey.

For Paul Dalton, the challenge to become a Mohawk Mountaineer begins on September 9^th, the first day of the men’s basketball team tryouts. Dalton is a first-year Mohawk student who took a fast track course through the summer for recreation and leisure services. Dalton has played basketball for many years, which included a spot on his high school teams at Barton Secondary and McKinnon Park Secondary. Dalton stands at 6’2” and played mostly at the centre and power forward positions.

Even before starting recreation and leisure at Mohawk, Dalton was a fan of Mohawk’s men’s basketball team. “I wasn’t able to catch the games live,” he said, “But the ones on Cable 14 I would watch.” Dalton noticed the good crowd of Mohawk students cheering on the Mountaineers’ home games. “Yes, a fair bit of students attend due to the basketball team being successful in the past.

Dalton hopes to be on the court this season, helping the men’s basketball team continue their success this coming school year. He wants to experience those loud Mohawk crowds from the court instead of from home on Cable 14. “Those who do well in the standings always bring the crowds,” he explained, “No-one wants to cheer for a bad team.”

Paul Dalton has the focus and excitement of an athlete ready to bring Mountaineers fans to their feet. The men’s basketball tryouts start September 9^th and go for three days, ending on the 11^th. Hopefully we’ll be seeing “Dalton” on the back of an orange and white jersey come opening night.

Competition is set to be fierce on and off the court as the Mohawk Women’s Volleyball team prepares for its season opener in September.

Despite a rough season last year that left the team with a 6-12 record, head coach Andrew Nicholson believes his team is ready for a breakthrough season.

“This coming season I fully anticipate that we’re gonna be a playoff team and I think we’re going to be a formidable team in the LCAA and the OCAA.”

The team showed the potential to grasp a playoff spot early last season with a 6-4 record before falling into an eight-game losing streak.

Nicholson attributes the slip up to a string of injuries and a lack of depth in the roster. The coach is addressing this issue by developing “internal competition” amongst the players.

“If you’re fighting for a spot, then every practice and every game you transfer that competitive nature to the court,” said Nicholson.

The coach hopes that allowing players to compete for a spot on the lineup will bring depth to each position and relieve the team’s dependence on individual players.

With the introduction of 11 new recruits, and an increase from 12 to at least 15 spots on the roster, the attitude is not the only aspect changing within the team.

The new recruits are expected to bring “height, exuberance, enthusiasm, and competitiveness,” said the coach.  With the introduction of these new recruits the roster’s height average is about two to three inches taller than last year.

Even the home court has changed with the opening of the David Braley Athletics and Recreation Centre scheduled to open in time for tryouts, September 4 and 5 in the afternoon.

“We’re going from a little minute, man-box of a gym that was built in the 1970’s to this fantastic palace that was designed for volleyball in mind because of the height of the ceiling. This will be an incredible motivator for them [players] this season at home”, Nicholson said. “They’re really excited about it.”

With heavy recruiting, internal competition, and even a new home court, there is a lot of anticipation revolving around this team come game time.

It has been a week since the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in LA, where game developers and console makers from around the world showed off their upcoming wares. Over ninety-one trailers were shown and countless games were available to play during the show. Unfortunately, like most I was forced to watch from home, as Ignite News did not receive an invite. There was a lot of information to process and reviews from those who were there to read so a week later seems the best time to sit down and write this out.

This year had both Sony and Microsoft showing off their competing systems (PlayStation 4 and Xbox One respectively) due out before Christmas, with Nintendo showing many games that their previously released Wii U will need to compete this holiday season.

Both Sony and Microsoft had previously had press conferences about their new systems, but the announcements were not without controversy. Sony’s press conference lacked some key information (including what the system will look like), while some might say Microsoft’s conference had too much bad information. The key difference between the two unreleased systems is boiling down to Internet connectivity and DRM (Digital Rights Management). Microsoft announced that the Xbox One will need to connect to the Internet once a day, every day in order to use any games on the system. This move is highly controversial for those who live in rural areas and those in the armed forces, who may not have consistent internet access. Deployed troops have been enjoying Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games for some time now and it looks as though the Xbox One will be leaving those men and women behind, especially those in the Navy where an Internet connection is often not possible at all.

Microsoft also announced that there would be restrictions on trading games. This is where things get truly murky. A consumer will not be able to simply hand their disc to a friend to play the game on their system. The receiver will have to pay a fee (possibly full price) in order to play a game that has been previous played on another system. Microsoft has announced a player can choose ten friends to trade games with, but this appears to be a one-time trade and may also cost a fee. Microsoft has said the amount of these fees will be up to the software publisher. Sony announced their system will not require a once a day connection, and they will not restrict people from reselling or trading their games.

Xbox One will ship with their new improved Kinect device, a camera that will not only respond to voice commands and movements of people in the room but their biometric data as well. This device has a default setting of always on – whether the system is on or not – and considering recent actions of the NSA, this has some concerned about privacy. Microsoft has since announced that this device will have customizable privacy settings, but we will have to wait until it is released to see just how this will affect user privacy. Sony has a camera device (the Eye) that will not ship with system and it is not known how intrusive it will be at this point. Xbox One will ship for $499 and PlayStation 4 for $399. Those prices are region-dependent of course, and subject to change. The Xbox One price announcement was followed by silence while the price of PS4 was met with cheers.

Phew, now that the console talk is out of the way it’s time to get to the most important part of E3: Games! Games! Games! Games! It would be impossible to talk about all the games here so I won’t try. All three consoles had a variety of games to show off. Here are some of the highlights in no particular order, and I will be focusing on unannounced titles and not ones that had been shown last year.

-Metal Gear Solid V (PS4/One/Xbox360/PS3)-A victory for Xbox One here, this series started on NES way back in the day but for the last few generations has been a Sony-exclusive title. This new multi-platform game will be an open world attempt at the game with fewer cut scenes. The trailer showed Snake (now voiced by Kiefer Sutherland) using various modes of transport to travel across a desert, town-hopping to where he eventually infiltrated an outpost where his friend was being held captive. Various new and returning characters will also appear.

-Final Fantasy XV (PS4/One)-Years ago this game was announced, but under a different name; Final Fantasy Versus XIII. The game has long thought to be as dead as the FF VII remake but to delight of many this delay-plagued game has been quietly worked on for the last seven years (at least). This FF game will be more action-based than the traditional role-playing format the series is known for. It seems to take place in a futuristic Japan, though this series is known for globe-trotting so don’t expect it to stay there.

-Mario Kart 8 (Wii U)- Rev your engines and grab a red shell, as the popular kart racing mayhem franchise will return next spring. 8 will include elements from the Wii version (karts vs. bikes) and the 3DS Mario Kart 7 (hang-gliders and underwater). It will also have anti gravity wheels that will allow even more wackiness in the racing tracks.

-Witcher 3 (One/PS4)-Still craving more from Skyrim? This game is the answer. A massive open world RPG featuring swords, bows, and spells awaits. CD Projekt Red claims the game will be 20% bigger than Skyrim and will have a hundred hours of gameplay.

-Super Smash Brothers (Wii U/3DS)- The Wii U’s Smash Bros will have three new characters in the brawl for this outing. Mega Man, The Villager (Animal Crossing), and the trainer from Wii Fit will join the fight along with Link, Mario and all the rest of the familiar faces from the franchise.

Other games to watch for include Assassin’s Creed IV, Batman Arkham Origins, Bayonetta 2, Beyond: Two Souls, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Smash Brothers U, Elder Scrolls Online, Forza 5, Halo, Killer Instinct, Zelda: Wind Waker HD, Mad Max, Pokémon X/Y, Project Spark, Rayman Legends, Quantum Break, Ryse: Son of Rome, X, South Park: Stick of Truth, Watch Dogs, Super Mario 3D World, Star Wars: Battlefront, as well as the expected FIFAs and Maddens and all the other sports franchises and many more.

There were lots of games on display, but compared to other years it was a bit underwhelming. All the consoles had been announced or released and there weren’t any big surprise titles like last years Watch Dogs and Beyond Two Souls that both have yet to be released and stole the show last year. Metal Gear was a bit of a surprise considering the previous statements by creator Hideo Kojima about not wanting to go back to that well. This surprise wasn’t left for E3 though, the week before E3 it was announced Sutherland would be taking over from David Hayter as the voice of Snake/Big Boss. Although with two new systems coming out and a slew of games for 2013 and 2014 already announced, it’s hard to argue it’s not a great time to be a gamer.

What has always made the best movies from the Judd Apatow factory different from other comedies is heart. The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Superbad, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall were all raunchy and vulgar, but beneath the R-rated jokes were characters dealing with real emotions in realistic ways.

When the emotions in an Apatow movie feel forced, it leads to Knocked Up’s rom-com plot between Katharine Heigl and Seth Rogen or the scattershot Pineapple Express, which seemed to forget it was even a comedy by the second half. This Is the End – which isn’t an actual Apatow movie but does employ all of his usual actors, writers, and producers – showed incredible promise from the clever trailers, but sadly is much more akin to the latter movies than the former.

This Is the End disguises itself as a movie about real people, with actors playing slightly exaggerated versions of themselves. Jay Baruchel flies into L.A. to hang out with Seth Rogen, who convinces Baruchel to go with him to a party at James Franco’s house. Guests at the party include virtually every hot comedic actor working today, from Craig Robinson, Danny McBride, and Jonah Hill to Michael Cera, Mindy Kaling, and Aziz Ansari.

The early scenes are some of the most hilarious of any comedy in the last few years, with every actor perfectly playing into the impression of what audiences think they’re really like. Soon, though, the Rapture arrives, leaving Rogen, Baruchel, Franco, Robinson, and Hill alone and barricaded inside Franco’s mansion while hellfire rains outside.

For a while, Rogen and his pals get significant mileage out of their end-of-the-world scenario and it’s quite enjoyable to watch them react exactly how we believe they would under the situation. By the second half of the movie, though, the laughs are fewer and farther between – and none of them end up matching the ribald hilarity of the opening 20 minutes.

As the final act arrives, the movie suffers from the same malady Pineapple Express did: while Pineapple Express left the comedy behind and got caught up in barn explosions and chest wounds, This is the End loses its way in an unfunny mess of sexual assault, cannibalism, and CGI phalluses.

Part of the problem is that a comedy about being left behind after the Rapture is somewhat handcuffed into a less-than-happy story. A larger part of the problem is simply that without any heart or honest emotion beneath the puerile humour, This is the End ultimately feels more like an Adam Sandler movie than a Judd Apatow one.

A crowd of people gathered in what will soon be Mohawk College’s brand new athletic centre on Friday morning. With the help of a marching band and some flag waving, Mohawk College President Rob McIsaac announced that Senator David Braley has made a $3-million donation to Mohawk’s Fennell campus, one of the largest donations in the college’s history.

In honour of the donation by Senator Braley and his wife, Mohawk is naming the new facility “The David Braley Athletic and Recreation Centre”. The new athletic centre will feature three gyms, a fitness centre, an indoor running track and multi-purpose exercise studios.

Mohawk College Foundation President Wayne Joudrie spoke with excitement about the new athletic centre. “We’re standing in the newest and we believe the best athletic and recreation centre of any college in Ontario.”

Senator Braley speaks to a packed house at the newly-named Recreation Centre.

The crowd rose to a spontaneous standing ovation when Senator Braley stood at the podium. “All of my and my wife’s donations have been around health and health care,” he said. “We are very, very concerned … we put money into research, we put money into clinics, we put money into family medicine, and we put money into athletic and recreation facilities.”

Ryan Chow, president of the Mohawk Students Association says he believes the new David Braley Athletic and Recreation Centre will be crawling with students as soon as it opens. “I think we’ll have to worry about students skipping class to be there.”

Before the crowd moved out to a tailgate party, Senator Braley explained his excitement for the new centre. “We look forward to the successful opening and the successful use of this facility over the next twenty, thirty years.”

The newest part of the Fennell campus is set to open for the start of the school year in September.

MSA President Ryan Chow (r), Varsity athlete Megan Campbell, Senator Braley and Mohawk President Rob MacIsaac

The upbeat performance of a marching band perfectly set off Senator David Braley’s $3 million donation to Mohawk’s Fennell Campus Renewal Project this morning.

“It’s a fabulous day for Mohawk College,” declared Mohawk President Rob MacIsaac to a gymnasium full of students, alumni, media and Hamilton Mayor Bob Bratina.

Braley’s $3 million contribution is one of the largest donations in the school’s history. Mohawk is recognizing the local businessman by naming the new athletic centre in his honour.

Scheduled to open in September, the David Braley Athletic and Recreation Centre is the latest addition to Mohawk’s Fennell Campus. Braley’s contribution is among the over $80 million that the renewal project will have raised by September.

“This is the finest facility of any of the colleges,” said Braley, whose sentiment was echoed by varsity volleyball player Mark Kaveckas.

“The new athletic centre is a huge attraction for the team. We’ll get a lot of recruits coming in because of it,” said Kaveckas. “The gym and weight training centre are the best I’ve seen so far among colleges.”

Braley was raised in Hamilton and attended McMaster University. He is the owner and president of Orlick Industries Ltd., as well as the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts and BC Lions.

The donation to Mohawk is one of many the successful Hamiltonian has given to his community. Braley has previously made contributions to McMaster University, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, the Royal Botanical Gardens, Hamilton Health Sciences, Big Brothers and Sisters, and the Hamilton SPCA.

The Senator said he believes that when a person becomes successful, it is important for them to give back to their school and community because that is where they learned the skills that helped them succeed.

“Hamilton is a special place with both Mohawk and McMaster to train our young people,” said Braley.

When asked whether he would ever work out at the recreation centre named in his honour, the Senator replied: “I will use this one from time to time.”

District Vice President of BMO Bank of Montreal Richard Jaques (l) and Personal Banking Manager for BMO (r) stand in front of the new BMO Financial Group Advisement Centre located in the Square. (Photo: Dyson Wells)

BMO Financial Group has donated $300 thousand to the Mohawk College Foundation.

Mohawk College President Rob MacIsaac says the money will be used towards the continuous renewal effort being made by the college. Eighty million dollars will have been contributed by early September to projects like the new recreation centre and new library, MacIsaac said, “It’s making a huge difference in terms of student satisfaction”.

Richard Jaques, District Vice-President of BMO spoke about the importance of education and how his company is excited to have the opportunity to help Mohawk provide for its students.

Wayne Jaudrie, President of the Mohawk College Foundation, said the money would be added to the “big pot”. However he also mentioned there are plans for a brand new outdoor student square and additional research facility classrooms in the engineering department.

Following the announcement, Adrian Anderson, a representative of Mohawk’s student body, presented Richard Jaques with a plaque displaying the gratitude of students to BMO Financial Group.