Muggles worldwide are taking their brooms for a spin
Amelia Ruthven-Nelson
Recruitment Manager
Think of a sport that combines dodgeball, basketball, flag football, soccer, and rugby. Does anything specific come to mind?
Now add the use of flying broomsticks and magic! All of you Harry Potter fans know exactly what I am talking about: Quidditch!
Wondering how this fictional game of J.K Rowling’s popular children’s series can be considered an underdog sport? Well the most popular sport of the wizarding world is slowly enchanting muggle (non-magical folk) athletes across the globe!
You might be laughing at the idea of muggles, young and old, attempting to make this fictional sport real, but it is not merely a children’s game of pretend. The muggle adaptation is a complex sport not for the faint of heart.
“Quidditch can be very competitive, but at the same time it can be played for fun. It’s also very action-packed—lots of things are happening at the same time, like the Chasers shooting at the goal, Bludgers hitting each other, the Snitch running around, etc.” says Jacky Yu, a University of Waterloo student who coached a recreational children’s Quidditch camp this past summer.
“Quidditch is appealing first off because it is very unique. It is not often that a ‘sport’ from a fictional book is turned into reality, where all of us can enjoy and play (except for flying around with brooms, of course). It’s also a great experience for those who have read the book to go through the same sort of experience that Harry Potter has went through as well.”
Despite being a flying sport intended for wizards, muggles have found ways to adapt the game into a physically exhausting sport better suited to their abilities. The rules and regulations of the game stay as true to the actual wizard sport as much as possible, although it is next to impossible to keep track of the 700 fouls J.K. Rowling discusses in her fictional encyclopedia Quidditch Through The Ages by Kennilworthy Wisp (a text she created to raise money for Comic Relief).
The teams are still comprised of three Chasers, two Beaters, one Keeper and, one Seeker and teams generally try to maintain a stable group of 10-14 members to allow for subs. Since the brooms in muggle Quidditch don’t levitate, the regulations on broom handling are much stricter and much more difficult to uphold. One hand must be on the broom and the players must be mounted on the sticks at all times, with the broom firmly situated between the thighs.
But what about the Golden Snitch? Surely they can’t have an appropriate replacement for a winged ball that both teams try to capture! True, without the use of charms and enchantments this fundamental element of the game seems impossible, but industrious muggles have found a solution to that too!
The Snitch Runner, a runner dressed in gold and yellow, runs across the field and other areas surrounding the game with a golden sock or “tail” (aka the snitch) attached to their backsides. To snatch the snitch, the Seeker must successfully detach the snitch from the Snitch Runner. In more professional leagues such as university teams, the Snitch Runner is expected to be (or have formally been) a Varsity Cross Country runner.
Whether you’re an athlete playing it as a competitive sport or just trying to get a better taste of Harry’s world, Quidditch is undeniably becoming more and more of a recognizable sport. Muggle Quidditch is growing in popularity and is taken fairly seriously amongst university leagues. In fact, York is the only university in the GTA that does not have a Quidditch team. It might seem silly but even prestigious schools such as Harvard have a Quidditch team whose members start each practice with a series of warm ups that incorporate broomsticks. There was even a world cup for university Quidditch leagues back in 2008. It was held in Vermont and 12 schools were in attendance, including McGill.
Muggle Quidditch doesn’t need the charms that allow the balls or brooms to fly because its dedicated players have their own charm. They train hard and they are rewarded with the fun and excitement of a thrilling sport that was once found only in a fantasy.
Now let’s be honest; you want to live the dream now too, don’t you?
