Question of the Week: How were you Introduced to Muggle Quidditch?
Each week, the IQA will release a question through...
Photo by Kat Ignatova
We saw an article in the Sacramento newspaper here in California about the local tournament and thought it would be great to take our boys (11,13) they thought it was stupid until they say the college kids playing a highly strategic and fun game...we all played in the pick up game in a field nearby and had a blast. As we mentioned to people, they think I'm joking or say "so do they fly" and I say "Yes, they run fast, but go see for yourself."
-Jeffrey Ross
I was on MyLifeIsAverage.com, and I saw a post where someone said they had heard of a college with a quidditch team and thus wanted to go there. I instantly wanted to know which schools had quidditch teams, and was very surprised to find out how many did. I went to a large university and we didn't have one, which was an outrage in my opinion. I posted something about this injustice on Facebook. The next day, someone asked me if I was serious about being interested in it, and we discussed getting it started at our school. We watched YouTube videos, read the rule book, and tried our best to learn the sport without any real sports experience. By the next semester, we hosted an event, traveled to a small tournament, had equipment, and were officially a team. Since then, the team has continued to grow and work their way up in the rankings and will be attending their first World Cup this year. I'm so proud of them, and I am so grateful that we were able bring such wonderful people together through quidditch.
-Amanda O'Connor
I was introduced to muggle quidditch when I saw people playing it in Central Park, New York last year.
-Amy Somers
I was introduced to playing muggle quidditch by an event at my college. One night in October, the Campus Board of Activities reserved one of our gyms and we played two games of quidditch. I'd heard about the sport before, but it was my first time playing. Everyone had a lot of fun, so we decided to start a club team!
-Andy
When I was about 15, I checked MuggleNet every day because Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr weren't popular yet. One day, they posted a story about how some students at a college called Middlebury figured out a way to play quidditch in real life. I couldn't believe it at first; you can't play quidditch without magic! But as I saw more and more of it, it started to look awesome and goofy and fun, and that day, I promised myself I would go to a college with a quidditch team.
-Ali Iannucci
I was first introduced to muggle quidditch when I attended HPEF's Azakatraz in San Francisco in 2009. The movement was just getting started at that time and my friend and I caught a pick-up game happening at nearby Golden Gate Park.
The first time I watched an actual IQA game was this past October when the University of California Berkeley and Stanford faced off on the UC Berkeley campus. My brother and I made a day trip of it and we had the best time figuring out the game and eating wizarding snacks. We even got to participate in a pick-up game during the lunch break, which was both fun and challenging. Those athletes work hard.
-Kelsey Paiz
I read a little article about muggle quidditch in ESPN The Magazine in 2006. I then went on to help found the Ohio State Quidditch team. Quidditch is awesome!!
-Emily Toutkoushian
I first learned of quidditch when my grandson told us he was attending Vassar College in part because of the prospect of competing in quidditch. I became a fan when last spring we visited him on the Vassar campus the Saturday of the 4th annual Butterbeer tournament.
-Clyde Bollinger
I heard about it on NPR about a year ago, but didn't check it out (I should have). One of the girls I eat lunch with is a huge Potter fan, like me, and we often discuss the books. We were talking about the third movie, and why it doesn't make sense that Harry got his Firebolt at the end of the year, got into a conversation about the importance of quidditch in the books with one of the other people we sit with, and I mentioned that quidditch was real. My fellow Potter fan and I both checked out the site, and I've loved it ever since. I'm pretty sure I read the whole rulebook that night.
-Rachel Condliffe
Shortly after he graduated from St. Joseph's collegiate institute in the summer of 2008 the vissonary Dan Panzarella, more widely known as D-Panz, created the Ives Pond Quidditch club. A rag-tag group of recent graduates and one or two high schoolers who wanted to get together and try this adaptation of the wizarding sport. As any good people would, they decided to archive their adventures via Facebook photo albums. One such player, Chuckie Mule, was tagged in a photo and ended up on my newsfeed. In what was most likely an effort to end my constant stream of excited questions on how it worked he sent me the rulebook and invited me to play. I was........terrible. And I have loved it ever since.
-Brian Herzog
My first experience with muggle quidditch came about four years ago, when I was in Boston attending a protest. I saw a flyer with a red, white, and blue snitch on it, announcing a state-wide quidditch tournament that had happened the previous day. Within a few hours I was looking at the IQA's website, and I checked back frequently over the next year or so, making sure that all of the colleges that I wanted to apply to had registered teams.
-Toby March
I was first introduced to muggle quidditch by my best friend Josie Parry! Her love for the sport and determination meant she managed to get her PE class to have it as part of the syllabus. With growing popularity throughout the school, lunchtime and after school clubs had to be developed to make time for everyone to get involved! The teachers favourite aspect is the fact that people who aren't usually involved in sport are getting involved and trying it out. Muggle quidditch has flown through my school and has done us a world of good.
Thank you Josie!
-Jake Masters
Well, it's hard to remember, really. I think I was just searching for quidditch videos one night I was bored, then I saw this one video on YouTube where normal people were practicing the sport, like, there, in real life. So I searched more, and I found more and more, and was just more and more impressed. I watched whole games, and my mind was blown away. I felt like I really wanted to do this now. I even discussed it with some friends of mine, who were really into making a team. Sadly though, I must report back to you guys that it was just yet another "oh that would be so cool" thing that never happened. You might think: "Hey, it's not too late!", but I'm moving far away from my town and friends in just a few months, so that would not be possible. But however, the dream lives on, and I really hope that in a few years I'll be a quidditch player!
-Remi Berg
Last year, my senior year in college, I was introduced to muggle quidditch through pure chance--i walked through my college team's practice and was almost hit with a bludger! I was crossing the playing field to get to my apartment and one of my soon to be teammates accidentally threw a bludger close to my head. I picked it up and tossed it back, saying it was OK to the players who yelled out "sorry!" Then curiosity got the better of me, I asked what they were doing...and joined the team!
I was part of the Fredonia State Quidditch team, the blue devils. I was a college athlete as well as a huge Harry Potter fan growing up but had never even heard of muggle quidditch until last year.
-Samantha Brethel
Summer 2012, after playing ultimate frisbee at Zilker Park in Austin, TX. I stumbled upon the University of Texas quidditch team having an open quidditch day in the park. Shoeless and shirtless I stumbled into the game and played chaser and beater. Everyone playing was smiling, and it was all very upbeat. I joined my college's quidditch team the next semester.
-Craig Garrison
I googled "real quidditch," and watched a sports analyst do a report on muggle quidditch. Then I got hooked. Never really played, but would love to!
-Nathaniel Hollis
Five years ago a girl at the local high school got some people together to play. One of my friends forced me to go, I loved it and since have become the co-founder and co-captain of my school's team with that girl who is now my best friend.
-Aaron Carstens
