I chased the snitch with Carolina’s club quidditch team

UNC’s quidditch team became an official club sport last year, and since then has been racking up victories.

As a huge Harry Potter fan and fellow club athlete, I decided to witness the magic for myself.

At 5.30 on a beautiful Tuesday evening, I joined the team for a typical practice. Before the first quaffle was thrown, I got to know some of the players.

Environmental Science junior, Alex Crawford, joined the team based on a suggestion from a high school friend and is now the president. He said the team has won two of their three tournaments this year, beating their rival team, the University of Maryland.

Fellow teammate Jessica McAfee, a junior, said: “Alex is our number one seeker – he’s really good. He’s kinda famous in the quidditch community.”

Jessica learned about quidditch at Week of Welcome her freshman year and decided to join.

“I actually didn’t read the Harry Potter books until last year,” she said. “The captain has never even read the books. I finally was like, ‘I’m on the quidditch team, I should probably read them.'”

I asked about their team mentality.

Jessica said: “Oh, we party quite often. We bond.”

Vice President Emily Harper added she feels “in love” with all the people on the team and has really enjoyed it all three years she has played.

I started to look around and saw everyone warming up by passing volleyballs – quaffles – to each other. I had no idea what I was getting into.

First, I had to learn how to run with a thin PVC pipe – the broom – between my legs. As you would expect, there’s a lot of sex jokes.

Keep my legs closed, got it.

Then I had to learn how to catch and throw while keeping the “broom” between my legs – all while running. That was definitely a muggle struggle.

Captain Lee Hodge suggested I play at the “chaser” position, the same position he plays. Our job was to get the quaffles through the hoops while avoiding getting hit by dodgeballs – bludgers. He was great at it. I was not.

We started a drill on tackling. Wait, what? Yes, tackling.

This co-ed team had no reservations about trying to take each other down. OK, so only one arm tackling is permitted. But still, it hurts, man.

Hodge had to get new equipment over the summer due to the wear and tear on the old hoops from tackling.

I was also informed the snitch is a very physical position. A player from the reffing team dresses in yellow and has a small “tail” Velcroed to his or her butt. The seeker from each team tries to remove the tail from the snitch runner.

This runner can basically do anything they want to the players, except for lifting them off the ground or punching them directly in the face. Reminder: players are not wearing any padding.

During national tournaments, players use actual brooms.

“The bristles hurt your legs and they are heavy. They will snap and impale people.” Yikes.

We ended the practice with a scrimmage. Surprisingly, I was first pick for teams. I was on the team with the president and captain, so I wonder if that was a sign of my skills.

I got sweaty, I ran a lot and I had so much fun. If I took away anything from this experience, it is that the quidditch team is the nicest sports team I have met. They welcomed me with open arms.

Walking away from the field afterward, everyone on the team said good bye to me and thanked me for coming.

“Our next practice is on Friday!” one of them yelled.

Sorry club volleyball, I think I’ve found my true calling.