Why I love being an IU Quidditch player

“Hi, my name is Bridget. I’m a junior studying English, and I play Quidditch.”

Every head in the classroom whips around to stare at me. The facial expressions I see are varied. Some look holy-shit-that’s-the-greatest-thing-I’ve-ever-heard excited. Others look vaguely interested. Others look like they’re fighting the urge to laugh.

This is how it goes in every new class when I’ve had to “share an interesting fact about myself.”  Anyone who’s ever played Quidditch is used to getting this sort of reaction from people. At almost every practice, someone will drive past our field and scream, “GRIFFINDOR!” or “EXPELLIARMUS!” or some other reference to the book/film series at us. We’ll smile and wave back, roll our eyes a little and get back to the game.

Don’t get me wrong; I love Harry Potter. As a kid, I attended several midnight premieres for both the movies and books. I used some of Dumbledore’s words of wisdom as my senior quote in high school. I may or may not have even chosen Hermione as my Confirmation name (I had to write a research paper on the saint I picked, okay? I actually put effort into learning about her).

That said, Harry Potter has little to do with why I love Quidditch.

It’s a full-contact sport

Yup, that’s right! It’s not just a bunch of people running around with sticks between their legs. It’s co-ed, but that doesn’t mean a 5’3” girl won’t take on a 6’2” guy and successfully to rip a ball from his hands or tackle him to the ground.

Our official league, USQ (United States Quidditch), offers health insurance to registered teams, and this year they altered the rulebook to require all players to wear mouth guards during tournament play, as there have been a number of league players who have gotten teeth knocked out in previous years. We don’t fuck around.

We have a carding system, much like in soccer, for fouls that players commit. Some are for technical issues, but in many cases, they’re for use of excessive force or aggression.

Quidditch can get pretty violent — our team has encountered concussions, torn ACLs, dislocated shoulders, temporary hearing loss, sprained and broken fingers and toes, and countless cuts and bruises from both practices and tournaments. We do our best to play safely, but we aren’t afraid to play hard.

So yes, we might look a little silly as we charge down the pitch clutching a PVC pipe, but don’t underestimate us and the physical demands we’re willing to meet for the sake of our sport.

IU Club Quidditch vs. Lake Effects Tempest (photo by Jessica Jiamin Lang Photography)

Having grown up playing club soccer, I was thrilled to discover the college extracurricular I’d been so excited to learn about was actually a rigorous sport. Members of our team come from various athletic backgrounds — we’ve had a number of former soccer players, lacrosse players, football players, wrestlers and track and cross-country runners join the team and excel in the game.

Being able to fulfill a childhood dream while getting one hell of a workout was a very pleasant surprise, and Quidditch has become a fantastic exercise outlet for me.

It’s allowed me to see more of the country

Being from upstate New York, I hadn’t seen much of the Midwest before college. Through Quidditch, I’ve had the opportunity to travel all over Indiana as well as to various locations in Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan. Many of the places I’ve gone to for tournaments have been places I would’ve never otherwise traveled to.  Plus, getting to see and become familiar with more of the Midwest has helped me to feel more at home here at IU.

Last April, IU’s Quidditch team also traveled to South Carolina after qualifying to compete in the eighth annual US Quidditch World Cup, USQ’s national tournament. There, we met and played against the top teams from across the United States — I even ran into a few teams from my area in New York.

This spring, our team will either be returning to nationals in South Carolina or traveling to a tournament in Texas, another state I’ve never been to before.

Aside from spring break trips and weekends at home, college isn’t always a time when regular travel away from campus is realistic. But, through Quidditch, I’ve been fortunate enough to have that be a possibility. Not to mention I am a road trip champ now.

The team is my IU family

IU Quidditch Team, 2014-2015

I’ve made a number of incredible friendships during my time at IU, but my teammates are the people who’ve been at the core of my college experience. Not only have we all grown close through our practices and tournament travel, but we also actively choose to spend a large percentage of our down time outside of classes, work and practice hanging out together.

When I first arrived at IU as a freshman, I didn’t know a single soul. Being so far away from home and having no one close by to reach out to was terrifying. The first few weeks of school were fairly lonely.

But once I reached out to the Quidditch team and started attending practices, I found myself embraced by a group of wonderful, hardworking and supportive people from a wide array of backgrounds and majors. This is now my third year on the team, and I can’t imagine my life without my little Quid fam. They have made my college experience into something unique and amazing. I am so grateful to know them all.

IU Quidditch Team, 2015-2016

If you’d like to see IU Quidditch Club in action, we’ll be hosting a round-robin event with three other universities at the turf field near Briscoe on Saturday, March 26 from 11 AM until 3 PM. Tell your friends, and come support your fellow Hoosiers!