Focus EMU Online: Feature Story

Feb. 1, 2011 issue
Some EMU students find competitive spirit through the magic of quidditch

By Amy E. Whitesall

Anyone who's seen the Harry Potter movies or read any of the wildly popular novels by J.K. Rowling knows a thing or two about quidditch. The official sport of the wizarding world, it's a physical, fast-moving aerial game, played by characters on flying broomsticks.

Well, quidditch has come down to earth. In November, Eastern Michigan's Flying Squirrels Quidditch Team competed against the world's best at the Fourth Annual Quidditch World Cup in New York City. The competition featured about 20 teams playing over the course of two days on four fields in Manhattan's Dewitt Clinton Park.

QUIDDITCH CREW: Members of Eastern Michigan University's Flying Squirrel Quidditch Team practice the competition made famous in the Harry Potter books and movies. Nathaniel Gibson (center) runs the quaffle down the pitch while Nicole Manzanares (far left) prepares to hit him with the bludger. The team recently competed in the Fourth Annual Quidditch World Cup in New York City.

Middlebury College beat Tufts 100-50 in the championship game. Even though the team didn't make it to the finals bracket, the Flying Squirrels Quidditch Team acquitted itself well, said Wendy Gouine, an EMU professor of English language and literature who is adviser of the Harry Potter Book Club.

"They played well," she said. "They were good games with close scores. They take it very seriously. They're devoted and dedicated, and I'm really, really proud of them."

In muggle quidditch, players don't fly, but they do run around the field holding a broomstick between their legs.

"It's hard the first time you do it but, after that, you really forget there's a broom," said Amy Loviska, Flying Squirrels team manager and co-founder. "We do spend the first day (of practice) teaching people how to ride a broom. Everyone's giggling because we look ridiculous but, pretty soon, you forget it's there."

And the snitch — a tiny, flying ball with a mind of its own in the Harry Potter books — is replaced by a crafty and agile human dressed in as much yellow spandex as the team can lay its hands on.

The game is actually more like two different contests running concurrently. On one hand, it is a no-holds-barred game of hide-and-seek between the snitch and each team's "seeker." On another, it's a soccer/lacrosse/dodge ball type game on an oval playing field. On the field, players try to throw the quaffle (a volleyball) through one of three hula hoops, supported at opposite ends of the field by PVC pipe. Players disrupt each other by throwing bludgers (semi-inflated playground balls).

"The game on the pitch is kind of like a cross between soccer, lacrosse and dodge ball," Gouine said. "It's full-contact and it is very aggressive. It's not a game for wussy bookworms."

The game ends when one of the seekers "catches" the snitch, typically by grabbing what amounts to a flag football flag tucked in to the snitch's belt.

The World Cup experience left the Flying Squirrels with a taste for the more physical style of quidditch played by East Coast teams. East Coast style involves more tackling, said Loviska. Midwestern style leans a bit more toward self-preservation, though she stresses that EMU plays an intense, competitive brand of quidditch. But now that the EMU team knows what it takes to compete at the international level, they're all in.

"It was a real eye-opener to how serious this sport is," Loviska said. "We had no idea. There were sponsorships from Adidas for some schools. It really legitimized us, made us feel like a real sport and made us want to work harder."

The Squirrels are like any other athletic team, but with a special, nerdy twist, Loviska said.

"I've only ever been involved in marching band. I was never really a sporty person," she said. The great thing about quidditch is that you can get nerds involved. We don't have tryouts. We let anyone play if they're committed to training and come to practice."

But muggle quidditch is steeped in the cult of Harry Potter. So, while athletic prowess may not be a must, Potter literacy is.

The Flying Squirrels evolved from a Harry Potter Book Club activity, and Gouine said all the team members are hard-core Harry Potter fans. The team, which formed in fall 2009, plays a pick-up schedule during the school year that includes opponents from the University of Michigan, Michigan State and several colleges and universities in Ohio.

For now, home matches are played at Frog Island. But Loviska is working hard to gain use of the athletic bubble, particularly if the team can assemble a slate of Big Ten opponents (Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State) for a tournament this spring.