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The Indiana Daily Student

sports

Quidditch club to play first home tournament

Quidditch Practice

You probably know quidditch as a sport from the magical world of Harry Potter, where wizards fly around on broomsticks throwing bludgers and attempting to catch the golden snitch. The IU quidditch team, however, takes the sport out of the fantasy series and onto the field. 

IU’s quidditch team is welcoming a new coach this year, Traeger Duratti. Duratti got involved with quidditch when he attended a summer camp that played the game, and he fell in love with the sport. He created his own team to play, and coached at several universities for five years before coming to IU this fall. 

The team is kicking off its 2018 season with its first tournament from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sept. 22 at 1200 N. Fee Lane. 

Quidditch only became an official club sport at IU in September 2014. The team already has 30 players this semester, double the number of players from last year. 

The game of quidditch has evolved since it first became popular. 

“Three to four years ago, it shifted from Harry Potter superfans to a legitimate athletic sport,” said Duratti. 

IU’s team is registered with U.S. Quidditch and is an affiliate of the International Quidditch Association.

“Overall, quidditch is on the verge of becoming a varsity sport,” Duratti said. “My job is to build a foundation here so the team can grow and continue coming up with their own ideas for the sport.” 

The game is a mixture of dodgeball and rugby, according to sophomore Lexi Lee, a member of the quidditch team. 

“The main idea is that each team has six players on the field all working together to either score in or defend the hoops,” she said. 

Each player has a job, either as a chaser, beater, seeker, keeper or as the golden snitch. The seekers attempt to catch and tag the person playing the snitch; if they do, the game ends. In the Harry Potter series, the snitch is a ball with wings, but in this game it is another player.  

The keepers act like goalies at the three hoops, chasers score and beaters defend their team by eliminating chasers with a dodgeball, which is referred to as a bludger. Each player must also have a “broom stick” — a PVC pipe — between their legs to make the game more difficult. 

The team practices on Woodlawn Field, and will be participating in several other tournaments after the season kicks off Sept. 22. 

With its growing popularity, not only at IU but across the country, quidditch has expanded to 85 registered teams in the U.S. for the 2018-19 season as of Sept. 18. According to Duratti, the team is accepting of all people and is a co-ed team, creating a welcoming environment. 

“It’s unlike anything else,” Duratti said. “With quidditch, at any given time you have two to three different games going on at once that make up a bigger game.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that there are 30 registered team in the U.S. for the 2018-19 season. The number of teams is 85 as of Sept. 18. 

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