When Harry Potter and his friends mount their brooms on the Quidditch pitch at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, magic carries them into the air.
For Muggle Quidditch players, things are a little different.
“You have to get past the whole ‘I’m running around with a broom’ thing,” said Mary Beth Henry, a member of the Three Broomsticks Muggle Quidditch team at Penn State University in State College. Flying “would be really cool, of course, but don’t spend too much time worrying about it.”
Since its founding at Vermont’s Middlebury College in 2005, Muggle Quidditch has grown into a worldwide phenomenon with hundreds of participating college and high school teams. The sport has been adapted for Muggles, or non-magical folk, from J.K. Rowling’s best-selling Potter novels, but being a Potterphile isn’t necessary to develop a love for Quidditch.
“I know a lot of people, even on our team, who aren’t huge Harry Potter fans,” said Henry, 20. “It’s just really fun to play.”
Cedar Cliff High School senior Josh Moyer agrees.
“I had read the first couple of books and saw some of the movies” before losing interest in the Potter series, said Moyer, 18. It didn’t stop him from helping form the Muggle Quidditch team at Cedar Cliff in September. “I had a friend who introduced me to the game.”
Popularity: Cedar Cliff’s roster fluctuates between 10 and 20 members, Moyer said; at Penn State, Henry has more than two dozen players eager to take the field. The first-ever Central Pennsylvania Open for Muggle Quidditch will bring those teams and more together for a public exhibition Sunday, Feb. 27, at Roof Park in Fairview Township.
“The tournament is BYOB — bring your own broom,” said Moyer, one of the event organizers. “I wasn’t expecting such a big response.”
Teams from three regional high schools have already committed to the event, as have players from farther afield, such as the Flying Koalas from the Ursuline School in New York. Penn State’s team will take on the Chestnut Hill College team in an exhibition game for the crowd. Both teams competed in the Quidditch World Cup in November, where Penn State finished ninth out of 46 teams in the bracket rankings, Henry said.
“It’s a supercharged atmosphere,” she said of playing in front of thousands of spectators at the World Cup. “We met some adult fans of our Quidditch team who weren’t related to anybody, who said they came to support Penn State.”
Gameplay: The game itself mixes aspects of several sports — a dash of rugby, a smidge of dodgeball, even a pinch of hide-and-seek. Seven players take the field for each team; a non-affiliated person dons the guise of the golden snitch (in the magical world, a tiny ball with fluttering wings; in the Muggle world, a flag-football style pull on a runner dressed in yellow). All players must carry a broom. Each team has a seeker, who chases the snitch, and a keeper, who defends three hoop-style goals, as well as two beaters, who guard their teammates and attack their enemies, and three chasers, who try to score.
“Chaos is probably a good word for it on some days,” Moyer said. “It’s many different things at once.”
“It can be chaotic, which makes it very silly and fun to watch,” Henry agreed. “When you watch it the first time, or even try to play the first time, you have no idea who to watch.”
With familiarity, though, the giggling confusion can turn into unexpected athletic grace.
The broom “requires a lot of coordination,” Moyer said, but “it’s very fluid, very moving; a lot of people are surprised that the broom isn’t so cumbersome.”
In fact, “the brooms are sort of neat, because it levels the playing field a lot so someone who’s not the best athlete can compete with someone who has played sports for years,” Henry said. “Everyone can run the same speed with a broom.”
Of course, keeping one hand on the broom also forces players to hone their other skills.
“You develop the ability to catch and throw with one hand,” Henry said. For chasers, that means improved handling of the quaffle (a volleyball); for beaters, it means more punishing attacks with the bludgers (dodgeballs).
With two fields available, the Central Pennsylvania Open plans to offer demonstration and learn-to-play clinics for those interested in giving the game a whirl.
“Anyone should be willing to try it once,” Henry said. “It’s great exercise, too.”
— Reach entertainment editor Mel Barber at mbarber@yorkdispatch.com or 854-1575, ext. 458, or follow her on Twitter at @yorkweekend.
The Central Pennsylvania Open starts at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 27, at Roof Park, 599 Lewisberry Road, Fairview Township. Quidditch matches are expected to last until 7 p.m.
Concessions will be sold, and bands are scheduled to play.
Spectator admission is free. Spectators who want to try playing Quidditch should bring along a wooden broom and goggles such as ski goggles if they have them. Plastic brooms are not allowed because of the risk of breakage.
Quidditch teams can register for $15 through the Central PA Open Facebook page until Sunday, Feb. 20. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Book Aid International, a program that provides libraries in sub-Saharan Africa and Palestinian territories with new books.
For more information about the tournament, e-mail centralpaquidditch@gmail.com or search for “Central PA Open” on Facebook. To learn more about Muggle Quidditch, visit the International Quidditch Association at www.internationalquidditch.org.
What is Quidditch?
In J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels, Quidditch is the sport beloved by most of wizarding society. Wizards and witches love their Quidditch the way West Texas loves its high school football.
Muggle Quidditch makes some adjustments for the non-magical nature of the players and the brooms (flying is right out, of course) but otherwise keeps the aggressive, complex state of play intact.
The field is an oval, roughly 30 yards by 50 yards, with three vertical hoops marking the scoring zones at each end. The keeper defends the hoops as players called chasers attempt to score by throwing, kicking or otherwise moving the quaffle (the main ball) through the hoops. A goal is worth 10 points. The chasers have to dodge bludgers (dodgeballs) thrown at them by the other team’s beaters, whose job it is to keep their opponents from scoring. Players hit by bludgers are out of the game until they run back and touch their team’s hoops.
Meanwhile, each team has one seeker who is on his or her own quest to capture the snitch, a special ball carried by a snitch runner who is not a member of either team. Capturing the snitch means an extra 30 points for the seeker’s team and ends the game.
During all of the action, players in every position must be straddling a broom and using either their hands or their legs to keep the broom in place.
For more about Muggle Quidditch rules, visit www.internationalquidditch.org.
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