Quidditch

Topic: “Nowadays Quidditch teams do not play locally, but travel to pitches, which have been set up by the Department of Magical Games and Sports where adequate anti-Muggle security is maintained.” Pg.17 Quidditch Through the Ages by “Kennilworthy Whisp”

Oh, silly wizards…I hate to be the one to break the news, but Muggles have found out about Quidditch. Heck, they not only know about the sport, but they PLAY the sport, as I found out on Saturday when I found myself driving an hour and a half to play in my second Muggle Quidditch match. They even have their own league here, sponsored by the local fan group HP-Ohio (www.hp-ohio.com)
I’ll admit, I was afraid the whole affair was going to be kind of lame when I first heard about it last month, but my curiosity got the better of me. Plus, there is free food; as an up-and-coming college student, I’m a sucker for free food
:). I was pleasantly surprised to find the game was really well organized, and the complete opposite of lame. I was also surprised to see how intense the Quidditch players were. Armed with level 1 soccer balls, red kick balls, hockey sticks, and 6 hoops of their own design, these people were ready to kick some tail. I was very impressed, and just a little frightened.

The game was pretty much the same as canon Quidditch¦minus the broomsticks. It’s pretty simple, so I’ll spare you the gritty details. For my part, I play beater. I get to hit the kick balls at people with my hockey stick. And if I hit them, they’re out for 10 seconds. And, thanks to my improving beater skillz, I tagged the other team’s seeker just as the snitch was released, giving our seeker the chance to catch it and win the game for us uncontested. I was very proud :). The snitch is pretty cool in our game. At the conferences, the snitch is a person in a yellow t-shirt that runs around, and capturing the snitch works like a one-sided game of flag football. But these clever people use these little launcher toys. They snitches are round, and you put them on a launcher and pull the string, and it goes spinning off into the air, and the Seekers tackle each other trying to catch it. It’s quite brilliant really, and it makes the game much more exciting than “Tag the person wearing yellow!” The whole game is so much fun!

What makes it fun isn’t just the sport, or the novelty of me doing something athletic and enjoying it(yeah, I know, crazy, right?), but the people. I’ve fallen in love both with my fellow Daytonatti Dementors and the other Quidditch players that frequent the matches. I shouldn’t be surprised at this point how awesome Harry Potter fans are. It should just be a given. I’d only met a handful of the people before, and they welcomed me with open arms and wanted me to play, even though I was more of a liability than an asset. Who would have thought I’d go from last picked in gym class to being beater for the Dementors?

And on top of all of that, Quidditch was just fun. It made a nice change from the online fandom stuff to get outdoors and do something. If you have the chance to go to a Quidditch game, you totally should check it out- it’s a great time. And if you don’t have Quidditch near you, you should totally start some teams. It really is brilliant! Go Quidditch!