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Photo credit: Ryan Kellet |
New Athletic Team at Vassar; Bring Your Own Broom
Every Sunday and Wednesday, Vassar transforms into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry when students, toting brooms and a volleyball, take to Joss Beach for a friendly game of quidditch. The sport, which was created by J.K. Rowling in the Harry Potter series, has taken off at college campuses nationwide. Vassar’s team, the Butterbeer Brewers, already has close to 30 members.
Woodrow Travers ’09 introduced the sport to Vassar earlier in the year after visiting his friend Xander Manshel at Middlebury College. Manshel, who wrote the original rules of college quidditch, encouraged Travers to bring the sport back to Vassar. The game, which has spread to at least 15 other schools (there’s even an Intercollegiate Quidditch Association), has already garnered the attention of the Wall Street Journal andESPN The Magazine. The players were recently interviewed byUSA Today following the November 11 World Cup at Middlebury.
Vassar’s quidditch team went head-to-head with Middlebury for the World Cup. Players donned bright pink capes sporting a giant “V” and other “wizarding touches” that were created and sewn together by Conard Schott’s mom. “It’s hilarious and so much fun to be running around on brooms,” says Schott ’11, who has become the unofficial team captain. “In quidditch, anything goes. It’s similar to rugby. You can tackle and do whatever you need to do to get the ball.”
“Quidditch is pretty unique,” adds Travers. “It’s like a combination of literature, physical activity, and Halloween.”