Junior environmental science major Katie McLaren (yellow) prepares to run back to her goal post after being knocked off her broomstick by a dodgeball. Kayla Reed | The Crow’s Nest
By Dylan Hart
Foam balls sat in a line in the center of the field.
Dressed in red, yellow, green and blue, the participants waited anxiously for the whistle, with everything from authentic Harry Potter wizard brooms to Swiffer Sweepers tucked between their legs. And suddenly, with a shrill whistle, both teams made a mad, chaotic dash for the center.
This is Quidditch – or, at least, the real-life equivalent.
Quidditch is a sport from author J.K. Rowling’s young adult fiction series “Harry Potter,” which has ballooned from a simple fantasy series about a wizard boarding school into a full-on cultural phenomenon.
In the fictional world of Harry Potter, the game is played on magical flying broomsticks. Unfortunately, the players here can’t fly, but they still have to keep those brooms firmly between their legs as they run to keep the atmosphere alive.
The Harborside Activities Board held the campus’ very first Quidditch tournament Nov. 17 on the Rec Field, inviting all students to participate. Students selected their “Hogwarts house,” based on personality characteristics described in the book series, and competed in their house’s respective colors.
“I know this first game’s going to be kinda rough,” HAB member Daniel Ciccia told the participants. “But it’s fun once you get the hang of it.”
Quidditch is a seven-versus-seven game. While the balls have magical properties in the books, such as sentience and personality, the real-life game simply uses colorful foam dodgeballs that the players can pick up and throw at each other, forcing them to “fall off their broom” and run back to their goal post.
Positions include “chaser,” which aims to acquire the one soccer ball (called a “quaffle” in the game) and score by throwing it through one of the opposing team’s three standing hula hoop rings for 10 points; “beater,” which can pick up the dodgeball and send opponents back to their goal; and “keeper,” which simply has to knock the balls away from the team’s goal, not unlike a goalkeeper in soccer or hockey.
A final position, played by Harry Potter himself in the book series, is dubbed “seeker.” Seekers have a special objective: In the final two minutes of the game, they must chase down the Golden Snitch, ending the game and giving their team 30 points.
This differs from the book where the game does not end until the Snitch is caught for 150 points or a mutual agreement is made between the two team captains to end.
In the world of Harry Potter, the Golden Snitch is a sentient golden ball that zips around the field and only tries to elude capture.
But here, HAB members don golden shorts with the Snitch’s illustration on them. A sock is tucked into the back of the shorts, with a tennis ball weighing it down.
All the seeker must do is grab that tennis ball by any means necessary.
Because of low turnout, the houses had to be combined for each of the four games throughout the day. The first game pitted the red Gryffindor and yellow Hufflepuff against the green Slytherin and blue Ravenclaw.
It was a neck-and-neck battle, with the score nearly tied at the end of the first game, but an exhausted Thomas Van Deusen, Gryffindor’s seeker, caught the Golden Snitch in the final seconds, winning the game for his team.
The audience erupted in laughter and cheers as Van Deusen collapsed to the grass, clutching the ball in his hands.
As the day dragged on, the houses played each combination until HAB declared that the fourth game would be a “championship match,” with Gryffindor and Hufflepuff teaming up again to take on Slytherin and Ravenclaw.
The winners would receive free US Quidditch T-shirts from HAB – and, undeniably, bragging rights until the next tournament.
With rewards on the line, the matchup made for another close contest. Strong athletes from both sides swiftly dodged balls from the beaters and hurled quaffles into the opposing goal.
However, halfway through the game, Slytherin and Ravenclaw started pulling ahead, netting 100 points against Gryffindor and Hufflepuff’s 60.
But by the final two minutes of the game, when the Snitch was released and the Seekers were sprinting after it, the score was at a decisive 120-100, meaning that a Snitch grab from either team would secure the win.
Then, the unthinkable happened: Gryffindor’s Van Deusen captured the Snitch at the same time that a Ravenclaw player scored, tying the game and forcing it into a one-minute overtime.
Even the final minute was a hard-fought, tense battle, with shouting from every direction.
Ultimately, however, Hufflepuff took the win for their side, with the final score coming from chaser Harrison Qun.
The tournament was a success for HAB. Despite relatively low turnout, the games engaged students and got them involved in something that they may have never sought before.
Sophomore biology major Alexander Heffner, who played beater for Ravenclaw, enjoyed the event. Heffner decided to play because he had friends who were also participating.
“I’m not going to say I’m a major Harry Potter fan, but it’s definitely interesting to me, and Quidditch is one of the most interesting things in Harry Potter lore,” he said.
“It’s tiring, but it’s definitely a lot of fun. My favorite thing has been the camaraderie, since all the teams are switching up and we get to play with everyone else – we’re not just total enemies.”
