BU Quidditch kicks off, aims to fly

Muggles in colleges around the nation have discovered a way to play Quidditch without bewitched Bludgers, hexed broomsticks or gravity-defying broomsticks.

Enchanted by the wizarding sport from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, Xander Manshel, a Middlebury College junior, created Muggle Quidditch in 2005 for non-magic students to take part in the game.

"In the fall of my freshman year at Middlebury, I adapted J.K. Rowling's fictional game so it could be played by nonfictional college students," Manshel said in an email.

In fall 2007, Middlebury College hosted the first Intercollegiate Quidditch World Cup, and the event spurred interest at colleges all over the United States. The Intercollegiate Quidditch Association now has 105 schools listed as members -- Boston University included.

Sean Culleton, a College of Arts and Sciences sophomore, said he attended the Quidditch World Cup at Middlebury and was spellbound by the event.

"I was very impressed with the level of intensity that people showed for the sport and the amount of spectacle that they were able to put on," Culleton said.

Culleton said he immediately knew he wanted to bring the sport to BU.

"As college kids we need to relax a bit more than we do," he said. "I also think a lot of people - especially at BU since BU is such a demanding school - forget that we are supposed to have fun when we are young and be a little ridiculous."

In Harry Potter, Quidditch is the national sport of the wizard community. The sport is played in the air by seven players on broomsticks. Each team has three Chasers, two Beaters, one Keeper and one Seeker.

It is the Chaser's job to score points by throwing the Quaffle - a red ball - into one of the three opposing team's goal posts, and the Keeper's job is to prevent any balls from getting into the goal. Every time the chaser gets a Quaffle past the Keeper he scores 10 points for the team.

Beaters attempt to keep the Bludgers, black balls that zoom around the Quidditch field trying to knock players off their brooms, from hitting their teammates. Beaters also slam Bludgers into opposing team members in order to prevent them from scoring.

Finally, the Seeker has to catch the Golden Snitch, a tiny, golden, winged ball that flies around the Quidditch Pitch. The Seeker that catches the snitch first scores 150 point for his team.

Muggle Quidditch is played almost exactly the same way as Wizard Quidditch with just a few tweaks here and there. There is no flying; muggles run around a field with brooms between their legs and the Snitch is actually a person dressed in gold.

"When we get angry with each other, we don't duel with wands, we just yell," Culleton said.

BU Quidditch began meeting a week ago, and intends to hold practices at least once a week on the BU beach or Nickerson Field. Although there are 92 members in the BU Quidditch Facebook group, only about 10 students have actually come to the interest meetings.

"In the next couple of weeks, we will try to have full teams show up, and hopefully at the end of the semester, probably during the study period, we can have a BU Intercollegiate Quidditch World Cup of our own," Culleton said.

Culleton said he hopes to have a large enough team by next fall to compete in the Intercollegiate Quidditch World Cup at Middlebury College, but said the plan is still up in the air.

Lauren Dobbs, a CAS freshman, said although she cannot play Quidditch the wizarding way, she plans to celebrate team victories with just as much magic as the Gryffindor team would after defeating the Slytherins.

"We'll have some Butter Beer because some of us are not 21, so we can't drink Fire Whiskey," Dobbs said. "And we'll eat Bertie Botts Every Flavored Beans, and then we would probably go to a Weird Sisters concert."