Capes, brooms and golden snitches on campus. Impossible? Maybe not.
Saturday marks the second annual UA Muggle Quidditch Tournament. The event starts at 9 a.m. on the Highland Green.
As of Thursday, there are roughly 120 people in the tournament, making this year’s event larger than last year’s.
Each team consists of three chasers, two beaters, one keeper, one seeker and, typically, three substitutes.
The chasers (who will wear neon green capes) try to get the Quaffle — aka volleyball — through the hoops to score points for their team. When a team gets a Quaffle through a hoop, it gets 10 points.The beaters (who will wear dark green capes) chuck Bludgers — aka Nerf Balls — at the opposite team to keep them from scoring.
The keeper (who will wear a gray cape) blocks the chasers from the opposite team from getting a Quaffle through the hoop.
The seeker (who will wear a purple cape) tries to catch the golden Snitch — aka racquetball — to earn 150 points and end the game.
Each game lasts about 15 minutes or until the Snitch is caught.
This year, teams were able to register online at http://uaquidditch.com, thanks to Matt Justice, a computer science freshman and director of operations for Coconino Hall. Each team represents a different dorm on campus, having at least half of the team residing in that dorm.
Quidditch probably isn’t the first sport you’d associate with a college campus. Many people can’t wrap their head around how the wizard sport is going to be translated in the real world.
“”One of the biggest questions is how’re we going to handle the Snitch,”” said Stacey Taubel, a resident assistant for Coconino and an adviser for the Hall Council. “”It’s going to be a monkey in the middle kind of thing. We’re going to have two players throwing a golden ball back and forth and the Harry Potter character has to try and get it.””
The UA Quidditch program is just one of many leagues registered with the Intercollegiate Quidditch Association. According to the IQA’s Web site, it began at Middlebury College in 2005 as an intramural league, but it wasn’t until 2007 that the IQA was officially founded and the first match was played. Today, more than 200 organizations around the world play in the league.
“”I’m just really excited to see how into it people get,”” Taubel said. “”There are definitely those ‘Harry Potter’ fanatics.””
