The Red and Black

Issue date: 10/23/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: KELLY WEGEL Members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team cheer Sunday before their match against Hufflepuff on the Myers Quad. Team seeker Ty Smith, a freshman from Duluth, raises a Halloween decoration he said serves as their mascot. Quidditch is a magical sport played by characters in the Harry Potter series. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: KELLY WEGEL Golden snitch Kristin Foxworth (left) flies to a hiding place while Ravenclaw seeker Derek Colbert and Slytherin seeker Jake Chastain watch before Sunday's Quidditch match on Myers Quad. Foxworth carries a cell phone to alert the referee when she is found, marking the end of the game. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: KELLY WEGEL Members of Hufflepuff and Gryffindor houses play Quidditch, a sport from the Harry Potter series, Sunday on Myers Quad. [Click to enlarge]

Quidditch constitution

Kristin Foxworth is a shiny golden ball with wings. Sort of, anyway.

Foxworth, a freshman from Ellaville, is a golden snitch in the University's Quidditch league, an amalgamation of students who created their own version of the beloved Harry Potter sport.

"(To be a snitch I) have to be kind of sneaky and good at hiding in things that won't expose my yellowness," Foxworth said of her duties as an elusive flying sphere. "I'm a pretty fast runner, but I tend to hide more because when I run sometimes I trip."

With the obvious disadvantage of Muggledom restricting their use of magic, co-founders got together and created a Quidditch game that their Facebook group says "brings together elements of ultimate frisbee, dodgeball, and X-treme scavenger (sic) hunting."

"Chasers" attempt to throw a frisbee through one of three hula hoops mounted on PVC pipes, following the general guidelines of ultimate frisbee while dodging the assault of balls from the opposing team's two "beaters."

"It was the love of Harry Potter, and the crazy idea that this might work (that made us start this club)," Erin Wilson, a co-founder and Hufflepuff captain, said before a Slytherin-Ravenclaw match Sunday. "We were kind of like, 'Hey, this may work.' And we made a Facebook group, and people thought it was cool."

Nick Passarello, a chaser for Slytherin, pointed to a love of ultimate frisbee as his reason for being there.

"The people that founded it, I guess they're big Harry Potter fans. But me, not really - I stopped reading after the fifth book," he said.

Sundays are typically Quidditch days on the Myers Quad. Ten points are awarded for each goal, and 150 for capturing the snitch, who is released three minutes prior to the game's start. A successful capture of the yellow-clad compatriot ends the game.

"(Snitches) are allowed anywhere between Lumpkin, Sanford, Carlton and Cedar (Streets)," said Maggie Kantor, the usual Sunday referee. "They're allowed anywhere outside and on the first floor of the parking garage, and we release the seekers at the same time that the game starts. The snitch has a cell phone so they can call me when they get caught."

All four Hogwarts houses are represented, with each team sporting T-shirts with their house's colors and logos, as well as the University Quidditch league logo. Players often swap teams and fill in for absent colleagues, but house loyalties run deep.

"Personally, I think Hufflepuff is the best. I mean, Cedric Diggory won the Triwizard Tournament for them," said Wilson, who played for Ravenclaw on Sunday. "I think we're doing them justice. We have a pretty awesome team."

One team captain showed similar house pride, and even a snitch expressed her favorite team colors and a sense of honor.

"(Ravenclaw) is a house with wit and intelligence instead of just bravery," said Henry Friederich, Ravenclaw's captain.

"I'm a really big Hufflepuff fan so I don't snitch for Hufflepuff games because that would be ethically wrong, or something like that," Foxworth said.

The inhabitants of Myers Hall have a reputation for being on the eccentric, studious side. Playing an imaginary sport every week probably won't help reverse that perception, but it's one that players embrace.

"Look at the building we play in front of," Passarello said, pointing to the looming honors dorm.

"It's quidditch. We're playing a fictional sport."

"A bunch of people who walk by and see three hula hoops and people with frisbees and dodgeballs and then a random person in yellow running around and hiding behind cars and saying 'Don't talk to me.' They think we're pretty weird," Foxworth said. "Being nerdy is fun."

Passers-by and casual observers have mixed feelings about these Quidditch athletes.

"I think they're just kind of normal people who like Harry Potter a lot," said Carrie Jensen, a freshman who lives in Myers and said she once turned down an offer to join a house.

Freshmen Erin Muller and Meagan Chandler said they came out Sunday to investigate how the attempt to recreate magic would work.

"At least they're being active," Muller said. "At least they're not playing Dungeons & Dragons."

"In the basement, by candlelight," Chandler added, laughing.

Five weeks into a nine-game regular season, Gryffindor and Slytherin sit tied atop the standings at 4-1, with Hufflepuff at 2-3 and Ravenclaw an unblemished 0-5.

The season will culminate in a postseason tournament to determine the winner of the Quidditch Cup.

The competition between wannabe wizards is intense on the Myers quad even without flying brooms and balls. But the team stresses that anyone can join up, and all mock-magic is in fun.

"It's Quidditch, it's nothing to get worked up about," Passarello said.

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