Norwich reveals Quidditch team

The Norwich community this year welcomed on campus a magical new club based on J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.

Quidditch is a new club sport that has become popular worldwide, according to the club's commissioner.

Quidditch originated in the fictional Harry Potter series. In the books, it is a game played on flying broomsticks by the wizards in the series. However, outside the novels, non-magical people have begun to play.

The club's commissioner, Sarah DeBouter, a 19-year-old sophomore majoring in English from Middlebury, Vt., started trying to establish it all her freshman year.

"I have successfully gotten it recognized as an official club by the Student Government Association this year. It's only (been on campus) maybe a month and a half," DeBouter said.

The rules of Quidditch are a little different in the real world than that of Harry Potter.

"(Quidditch) involves broomsticks, two bludgers, a snitch, and one quaffle," DeBouter said.

In the book, she said, "The snitch is a very tiny ball with wings; it flies around and you have to catch it, and if you do you win the game and get 150 points."

"However, in the muggle world, a snitch happens to be a person dressed in gold with a sock ball attached to their (pants). It's like flag football," DeBouter said.

A "muggle" is a person without any magical abilities.

The person playing the role of the snitch can run anywhere they would like on campus. Other than the seekers, who try to catch the snitch, all the other players are confined to the field.

There are two other types of balls that are used during the game.

"A quaffle is a volleyball that we throw through one of three very tall hoops at our end of the field," DeBouter said. "The quaffle is the ball in the game that is used to score points."

"(The bludgers) are just dodge-balls that you can throw at people," DeBouter said. "If you are hit with a bludger (you) have to run around the field three times before joining the game again."

The bludgers are used to prevent other teams from scoring.

There has been a book published that explains the rules of Quidditch and gives a history of the game and equipment.

Quidditch Though the Ages, by Kennilworthy Whisp (aka J.K. Rowling), explains the rules for the game played in the books and films. The actual rules for Quidditch are based as closely as possible to the outline the book gives.

There are seven players per team on the Quidditch field.

"The keeper guards the hoops to make sure the quaffle is not thrown in (so that the other team scores points)," DeBouter said.

There are also three "chasers" who deal with the quaffle. Their goal is to get the quaffle into the other team's hoops. There are three vertical hoops on each side of the field to score in.

There are two beaters; they throw the bludgers at the other team to distract them from scoring, according to DeBouter.

"Then there is the seeker, whose goal is to catch the snitch," DeBouter said. "The seeker and the snitch have (to run around campus) whereas all the other players are restricted to the field."

Norwich joins many other colleges who have a Quidditch team.

"Quidditch was created in Middlebury, Vt.," DeBouter said. "I have seen it grow from the ground up. I wanted to bring the magic to Norwich and hopefully it will continue way after I graduate."

"There is also an International Quidditch Association and the website is internationalquidditch.org," DeBouter said.

Norwich is a part of this association along with over 400 other colleges in the U.S. However, there are even more throughout the rest of the world.

The weekend of Nov. 13-14 was the Quidditch World Cup game in New York City. Norwich players attended to watch the game being played.

According to DeBouter, "our big goals are to have tournaments. We are going to have a spring tournament hopefully, but in order to do that we have to have a lot of fund raisers. We need to get brooms, which are required to be held at all times during the game. We also have to arrange (games)."

Breena Hughes, a 19-year-old sophomore majoring in mechanical engineering from Forte Worth, Texas, said, "We are trying to get kids to play Quidditch (and) make it a good game and bring the book to life."

Hughes is the treasurer for the club.

"We are trying to fundraise more. The more fundraising we do then the more budget we have," said Hughes as she's not planning on being able to afford team uniforms just yet.

"Our biggest fundraiser we are planning is tournament based. [During games] we will sell homemade goods, such as caldron cakes, butter beer and pumpkin pasties. These are things from the book but we can make them," DeBouter said.

Hughes said that "our plan for now is to start having practices by the end of the semester and then scrimmages by the end of next."

Sienna Morgan, a 19-year-old sophomore double major in English and communications from Dallas, Texas, is acting as the team captain.

"I will conduct tryouts and decide who gets to play in which matches. I help organize fundraising and stuff like that," Morgan said.

Getting involved in the community is a large part of being a Quidditch team member.

"The community will be giving to us, so we want to be giving back to the community" DeBouter said.

"Right now we are possibly looking at having some read-a-thons to small children. To which we will read different Harry Potter excerpts from the books or teach them about Quidditch," Morgan said.

"We are also planning on setting up little Quidditch matches with the children get really involved," DeBouter said.

Make sure to watch out for this unique club on campus very soon.

For more information on Quidditch, check out www.internationalquidditch.org.