I found out about real-life, or “muggle,” quidditch through a friend during my last year of studies at the University of Ottawa.
As a proverbial Potter-head I would like to say that I did not hesitate to pick up a broom when I first discovered that I could bring to life such a monumental piece of my childhood.
Harry and I were the same age, you see. We’d grown up together.
I must admit that I wasted the better half of what was to become my first quidditch season teasing my friend for his choice in recreational activities.
I mean they ride brooms, for goodness sake.
That is until I witnessed my very first match. I was covering the Quidditch Canada Cup, which at the time consisted of eight teams, for the university’s student newspaper.
Here’s what I saw:
Chasers zipping by on broomsticks, trying to gain possession of the quaffle, while avoiding dodgeballs – known as bludgers in quidditch – and tackles.
Chasers on broomsticks zipping down the field, trying to avoid getting tackled to the ground, as dodgeballs – known as bludgers in quidditch – are being whipped at them by beaters.
As if this beautifully confusing mash-up of basketball, rugby and dodgeball was not enough, in comes a person all dressed in yellow from head to toe.
The game switches gears as the seeker from each team attempts to catch the snitch and end the game – diving, lunging and grabbing at a sock attached to the back of the yellow guy’s shorts.
In that moment I was enthralled. Sign me up, I told my friend later that day.
Adapted from J.K. Rowling’s best-selling Harry Potter series, real-life quidditch is the product of Sunday afternoon boredom.
Tired of their traditional pastime of lawn bowling, two friends from Middlebury College in Vermont – Xander Mandel and Alex Benepe – were looking for something different to do on their day of rest.
Naturally, they decided to bring a completely made-up sport involving magic to life.
The first-ever quidditch game was played in October 2005. Lacking a broom, one player rode a lamp instead. Players wore capes.
Since then quidditch has grown into a competitive, full-contact and gender-inclusive sport. Wizardly attire made way for athleticism and teams began multiplying like Weasleys among American post-secondary institutions.
Quidditch eventually made its way into 20 different countries around the world, including Canada.
Nation-wide there are about 30 teams that compete in regular season games and tournaments scheduled throughout the fall and winter, as well as in regional and national events.
Alberta counts seven of those quidditch clubs and two travelling teams.
“The growth in Alberta has been absolutely explosive,” said Jill Staniec, membership director and western expansion representative for Quidditch Canada. “More teams have started up, including in some unlikely places like Drayton Valley, and the calibre of teams has also increased.”
“This is due both to having high-profile events such as Western Regional and Canadian National Championships and also due to the support the teams in Alberta have given to each other.”
Challenged by geography, three of the province’s biggest clubs – the Calgary Mudbloods, the Central Alberta Centaurs, located in Red Deer, and the Edmonton Aurors – combined last year to create the province’s first travelling competitive team.
The Alberta Clippers placed first in the western regional tournament in Moose Jaw, Sask. in February and fifth in the national tournament in Burnaby, B.C., in March. They also travelled to tournaments in Kelowna, B.C., and Moscow, Id.
Like many other sports there are different levels of competition in quidditch, from recreational to international tournaments.
Last summer, the second bi-annual Quidditch Global Games were held in Burnaby, B.C. Teams from seven different countries put together elite teams and fought for the title of best in the world in front of 200 spectators.
Locally, the Edmonton Aurors Quidditch Club plays on a more recreational basis, holding open practices every Sunday at 1:30 p.m. just outside the Kinsmen Sports Centre in Edmonton and occasionally travels to tournaments within the province.
Formed last summer, the team has been following the same growth pattern as the rest of the province – a little slow to start, with a recent boom in numbers and talent.
“I started practices when there was only two to three other people and we hung a single hoop on a tree to score on with one quaffle and we were all chasers – no beaters,” said Justin James, president of the club.
“Now we’re scrimmaging. It’s grown that much in eight months.”
St. Albert native Kurt Drachenberg is one of those recent additions. He attended his first practice on Canada Day at the suggestion of a friend.
“What enticed me? The fact that it’s a book turned into a sport, the fact that we run around on brooms and that it’s competitive. I just had to try it,” he said.
A former soccer player, Drachenberg was also looking for a way back into competitive sports.
Quidditch incorporates skills from a mixed bag of more traditional sports and everyone brings something different to the pitch, whether it’s running patterns from their high school football days, field awareness from years of soccer or accuracy from their pitching arm.
Snitches tend to be wrestlers or marathon runners. Their ability to throw down or run for days makes them an elusive and cunning target, just like the winged ball from the books.
But the quirkiness and open mindedness of quidditch also attracts a lot of players with no sports background at all.
It’s this same attitude that made Drachenberg stick around.
“It’s a group of people that get together and play a game and everybody is in for the fun of it, but you can still play competitively,” he said.
This welcoming attitude is also what makes quidditch such a great an ally to the LGBTQ community and an advocate for gender equality – a fact that I have always appreciated.
Quidditch is a mixed-gender sport and its treatment of gender identity is very progressive.
Not only do guys and gals play together on the same pitch – I’ve been bowled over by many a 200-pound dude – all genders do.
The rule that regulates the number of players on the pitch is written in a way that recognizes that not everyone falls within the gender binary — meaning not everyone sees themselves as male or female.
Where most co-ed sports will require a minimum number of female players on the field, quidditch’s “Four-Maximum” rule simply states that there can’t be more than four players of the same gender on the pitch at the same time.
Not only does this bring awareness to gender issues, but it creates a safe place for trans, genderqueer, agender and players of other gender expressions to be themselves.
Making quidditch pretty novel in the sporting world.
