Quidditch Comes to Amherst

This is a story about Muggle Quidditch that I helped write back in the Spring of 2008:

 

A picture of Middlebury Quidditch players that I took back in March 2008 during their visit to Amherst

By: Lyndsey Woodman and Eric Taber

Two teams of seven, flying broomsticks, a golden-winged ball bewitched to hide from the naked-eye, others made of iron and enchanted to hurl themselves at players indiscriminately – all this makes up the intricate game of Quidditch described in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.   The sport is so complex that Rowling devoted a whole book, separate from the series, just to give an in depth explanation of the rules, regulations, and history of this fantastical “wizarding” game.

            Knowing all this, the idea of Quidditch being played by college students as an intramural sport must sound ludicrous.  Nevertheless, students from Middlebury College have, in fact, developed a way to turn this fictional game into something everyone can play. 

            Alex Benepe, a 21-year-old art history major, and Xander Manshel, a 20-year-old English major, first introduced “Muggle Quidditch” to the collegiate world in the fall of 2005. The term muggle is derived from the book’s definition of a non-magical person, which perfectly coins this re-invented version of Quidditch, considering students don’t have access to flying brooms. The duo have written a 39-page rule book, including tips on how to begin your own Muggle Quidditch team. 

There are various differences between the game of Quidditch dreamed up by Rowling and that which Benepe and Manshel have devised.  For starters, in the Harry Potter series, teams are made up of only seven players: three chasers, two beaters, one keeper, and one seeker three chasers, two beaters, one keeper, and one seeker three chasers, who are in charge of scoring, two beaters in charge of protecting their teammates, one keeper that guards the three goal posts, and one seeker who searches for the snitch.   In muggle quidditch, however, many colleges have been playing with 10 to 14 teammates in their games.  Not only did the amount of players change, but some of their roles did too.  The beaters who, in the books, had the very important task of protecting their teammates from the flying iron balls, known as bludgers, instead have to throw rubber balls at the opposing team.  If they sucessfully hit someone from the other team, the targeted opponent must then run back to their own goal hoop and run around it once before rejoining the game.  Beaters throw three bludgers (red rubber balls) at each other. A beater who is hit with a bludger must run back around the hoops on his or her side before rejoining the game.

Furthermore, without the use of magic, many aspects of the game had to be re-thought.  Students had to resort to running around the field with broomsticks held between their thighs.  Bludgers, which were noted to be made of iron in the series, have been replaced by rubber balls so that players don’t get hurt.  Similarly, the snitch, which in the book was a golden-winged ball, has become a tennis ball stuffed inside a long sock and is tied to a cross-country runner’s shorts.  To simulate the snitches ability to remain uncaptured, as is indicated in the series, the runner darts across the field – sometimes doing back flips and handstands.  The “seekers” from each team try to get the ball inorder to earn their team 50 points and end the game.

“It’s kind of like three games going on at once,” explained Rachael Gross, a student from Amherst College who played in a Quidditch match against Middlebury back in March.  “There’s a game of football or basketball, whichever you want, where you try to get the ball through the hoops with your teammates; there’s a game of dodgeball going on, where you have dodgeballs acting as bludgers and you try to hit people to send them back to their goal posts; then there’s a game of tag where the snitch comes into play.”

While the seekers pursue the snitch, the chasers run down the field passing around the quaffle, a deflated volleyball, in an attempt to earn their team ten points by throwing it through one of the other teams three goal hoops.  The opposing teams keeper must challenge these attempts.

As in almost any sport, penalities have been put in place.  Foul play such as “cape grabbing” may result in receiving a yellow “wand,” or warning from a referee.  In the end, the team with the highest point total wins.

With such a great response from their local collegiate community, students in the Middlebury College Quidditch Club decided to use their spring break as an opportunity to travel throughout the northeast and introduce other campuses to their new sport.  They aimed to visit eight schools at which they would direct a Muggle Quidditch match, providing the equipment and instructions themselves. Though the chosen eight were Bard College, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, Columbia, Vassar, Wesleyan, Amherst and Dartmouth, the club still made it a point to stop by other colleges on route to spread the word.  In fact, they even hit up the University of Massachusetts Amherst, equipped with brooms and all.

Running around in front of the student union with their capes blowing in the wind, the Middlebury Quidditch Club received a lot of attention from the students of UMass.  Nevertheless, one UMass sophomore had known about the Quidditch scene for quite some time and was already in the process of starting up a team on the UMass campus.  Maggie Henry, a Spanish major from Belmont, Ma., had heard about Muggle Quidditch a while back from one of her friends attending Middlebury College.  “I checked out the Intercollegiate Quidditch Association facebook group and saw that a number of schools had started leagues, and UMass wasn’t yet on the list,” she said. “I e-mailed Alex Benepe, the Quidditch Commissioner from Middlebury, and he sent me a copy of the official Muggle Quidditch rule book.”  Another UMass student, sophmore Physics and Math major, Matt Drake, had also e-mailed Benepe.  Since Henry already had the rules, Benepe gave Drake her contact information.  From there, Henry and Drake decided to work together as co-founders of the Umass Quidditch Club.

“To get students involved, we first went to facebook,” Henry said.  “Matt created a UMass Quidditch facebook group, and we both invited all of our friends.”  Currently, the group has about 80 members.  “A number of students have expressed interest in playing, probably because so many students our age have read and loved the Harry Potter books,” Henry said in regards to the groups success. “I think that when we explain that, yes, muggles can indeed play Quidditch, they start to think, ‘Oh okay, that could be fun!’”

            The group recently had there first meeting on April 19^th and, although the turnout on the field was not as great as they had hoped, Henry and Drake aren’t giving up.  “We plan to schedule some more meetings for this upcoming week, and hopefully when we play more we can get organized games, both amongst ourselves and possibly against the Amherst College team,” Henry said. 

            So what do other UMass students think about all this?  Apparently, they feel Muggle Quidditch could be a big hit.  “I can see the game becoming popular here,” said sophomore Communications major Emily Ward.   “There are enough people who are hardcore Harry Potter fans – students playing Muggle Quidditch are just like candy companies making ‘Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Jelly Beans’ – It’s creating a fun way to bring the book to life.”

Junior Journalism major, Andrea Murray agreed.  “When I went to Barns and Noble one time, they were having a Harry Potter Day and the whole place was filled with people dressed as characters; Harry Potter is such a big craze that I’m sure people would want to play.  I would totally go and watch a game – it would be funny.”

Freshman French major Arron Couvert pointed out “It could become a legitimate sport someday. You never know, Volleyball has been around forever and that was created right around here, at Mount Holyhoke, I think. I’m sure it’ll take on just like any other sport – it just takes time.”

Despite the positive feedback from the rest of the University, the Umass Quidditch club still has a long ways to go.  “Right now a big obstacle for us is finding places to play,” Henry said.  And whether or not the team will have funding depends on whether or not the club gets RSO status.  “Only after that will we know what we can expect to be able to do in the fall,” Henry explained. “We do hope to get money to buy equipment – brooms, goggles, materials for goal posts, and uniforms.”  To find out about the Umass Quidditch Club’s progress or to learn about upcoming meetings, check out their facebook group entitiled “Umass Quidditch.”