Muggle Matchup
The players arrive to the muddy field in twos and threes on a rain-soaked Sunday afternoon.
Team Win confidently believing in its name, takes to the field following its experienced Keeper, Drew Shields. Its opponent, Team Fire Truck, takes its time as seasoned player Peter Zona, a freshman history major, explains the rules of the game to a couple of first-timers.
A small group of onlookers excitedly take their seats across the fence as the players break into teams and decide positions. The players line up in front of their team’s goal hoops, brooms extended in front of them.
‘Are you ready?’ Shields, a freshman advertising major, exclaims over the howl of the wind as players wiggle in their places.
‘Brooms up.’
And they’re off, running to retrieve the Quaffle and Bludgers from the center of the field, their brooms immediately placed between their legs as if by magic.
Led by former Quidditch World Cup teammates Zona and Shields, students played the second game of Quidditch in Syracuse University history outside of the Women’s Building on Sunday.
The sport, created and made famous by author J.K. Rowling in her Harry Potter series was first played at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on flying brooms. Then Quidditch was adapted for Muggle (non-magical) athletes in 2005 by a student at Middlebury College in Vermont. The game is now spreading to campuses around the country.
Zona said he and Shields first started playing Quidditch in high school.
‘One of our friends in high school just said ‘hey, want to play Quidditch?’ So we just said ‘hey, why not?” He said.
Shields, Zona and their Quidditch team – the Ives Pond Quidditch Club – went on to compete in this year’s Intercollegiate Quidditch Association World Cup, held at Middlebury College.
‘We want to eventually send an SU club team to the IQA and it would be pretty cool to play in the Carrier Dome too,’ said Zona as he picked up his broom and headed back to the field.
Right now, the team is unofficial, simply composed of students who show up to the Women’s Building on Sundays to play. Zona and Shields have been posting flyers across campus to spread the news.
‘We were really interested in how they could do it,’ said Abby Lambert, a freshman advertising major, speaking for a group of onlookers who decided to watch the game after seeing flyers around campus.
‘It looks really complicated,’ said Joe Winderi, a freshman accounting major and Quidditch spectator. ‘It’s like a mix between dodge ball and I don’t know what.’
The human-adapted form of Quidditch works like this:
Three Chasers on each team try to throw the Quaffle (a soccer ball for SU games) into one of the three goal posts on either end of the field in order to score points. The keeper protects the three round goal posts – in this case three hula-hoops, stripped of their pink sparkles and suspended about six feet in the air by plastic braces.
There are also two Beaters on each team who use Bludgers, small bouncy balls with a picture of Spider-Man on them, to hit other players. When hit with a Bludger, a player must run around his goal posts to take time out of the game.
‘Where’s the snitch?’ someone yells from a passing car.
Shields, temporarily distracted from the game, responds, ‘we didn’t have enough players, come join us,’ before being hit in the back with a Bludger.
However, as the car drives off, Shields forgets the absence of the Snitch. He regains his concentration and runs around his goal post.
Meanwhile Joe Astle, a freshman mechanical engineering major playing for Team Fire Truck, has retrieved the Quaffle and runs the length of the field. There is a collision and a broken broom is hastily thrown to the side, its top completely shaven off the stick.
Astle, however, is still on his broom and is not hurt. He continues toward the goal posts at the end of the field. As he throws the ball a Bludger just misses his arm. He is caught off guard and ends up missing the goal hoop by just inches.
‘This is weird,’ says Astle, a first-time Quidditch player, looking disappointed about the missed goal.
Shields takes possession of the Quaffle and runs toward Team Fire Trucks’ goal posts. Reaching them, he skillfully passes the Quaffle to a teammate who easily dodges the Keeper and deposits the ball into the closest hoop.
‘Ooooh,’ says Shields, slapping high fives with his teammate. ‘I’m wicked.’
As the players tire, the game ends. Shields sports the battle wounds of a torn sock and mud stains all over his clothes. He walks up to address the players of both teams.
‘Good game, guys,’ says Shields, giving a full postgame pep talk. ‘Remember, we’ll be back next Sunday, come and play again next Sunday.’
Published on March 30, 2009 at 12:00 pm
