For those who think the sport of Quidditch only exists in J.K. Rowling’s fictional wizarding world of Harry Potter, you are sorely mistaken. The University of Tampa’s Quidditch team, The Order of the Spartans, is now in its second year.
“It’s just like in the movies, but you are running instead of flying,” freshman biology major Kelly Colbert said. “You have a broom between your legs and you run from side to side.”
On the field, there are two types of balls: the Quaffle and the two Bludgers. There are also several positions for the players including three Chasers, two Beaters, a Keeper and a Seeker. The Chasers run across the field and throw the Quaffle through the hoops to earn points for the team. Colbert is a Chaser for the team.
“The Beaters are the only ones who can touch the Bludgers and they can knock you down,” Colbert said. “If they knock you down, then you have to run all the way back to your side before you can play again.”
Avid Harry Potter fans may be wondering about the Golden Snitch. While there is no small golden flying ball, an individual who is not on either team dresses in yellow from head to toe and acts as the Snitch.
Before the game begins, the Snitch gets between five and 10 minutes to run away. After that, the Seekers are allowed to try and catch him. Once the Snitch is caught, the game ends. However, in muggle Quidditch, the Snitch is not worth that many points. Catching the Snitch doesn’t result in an automatic win like it would for wizards and witches.
The sport also modifies the equipment for muggles. Technically, the only required item is a broom.
“Other than that, the Quaffle is actually a volleyball,” Colbert explained. “The Bludgers are deflated dodge balls. The hoops are just PVC pipe and hula-hoops. That is all you really need to play.”
While the team is now technically a student organization, they are trying to arrange a meeting with OSLE to become an intramural sport. Once they are considered a sport, the next step would be to become IQA certified. IQA is the International Quidditch Association. With the IQA certification, the team can become nationally ranked and work towards their goal of attending the Quidditch World Cup, which will be held in April in Kissimmee, Fla.
The team currently plays in tournaments. Their last tournament was the weekend of Nov. 3rd against the University of Central Florida.
“Before the tournament, we were practicing up to three times a week. But now that it’s over, we practice as a group on Sunday evenings. During the week we have one group training day, and we work out on our own at least once,” Colbert said.
Colbert mentioned that she became interested in the sport while reading the Harry Potter series. She got a lot of her friends interested in the idea as well, so the team now has 14 members.
“We are all really excited because we are all friends and we work really well together,” Colbert said. “Before this year, I had never heard of Quidditch and I certainly had never played it. I was just really excited to learn, and I basically threw myself into it.”
Colbert attributes some of her success to her six years of experience playing soccer which helped her to quickly understand the sport. At their most recent game, she assisted in refereeing the game. Colbert cannot wait for the UT team to become more popular and gain some status.
Samantha Delle can be reached at samanthadelle@aol.com