SCAD Quidditch descends on UGA
Outside of Oglethorpe House a team is getting ready for their meet with the University of Georgia. They are dressed in sweats and are decorating the windows of their cars with chalk paint. Seeing “Go SCAD!” and “SCAD vs. UGA 2008” painted on the windows, you might think this was just a typical sports team. But if you noticed the bumper sticker that reads “My other car is a broom,” and the chalk drawings of wizards and snitches, you might realize this is no ordinary sport. This is Quidditch.
Quidditch, as it is known to most people, is the fictional sport that is fanatically popular in the world of Harry Potter. Although its origins are fictional, College (or Muggle) Quidditch, has become more and more common on real college campuses. According to the Intercollegiate Quidditch Association (IQA), there are over 100 college Quidditch teams in existence.
SCAD’s team is young. They held their first match on Martin Luther King Jr. Day this past January, and have been playing in Forsyth Park every Sunday since. Today is historic; not only is it the SCAD team’s first match against another school, it is also the first intercollegiate Quidditch match ever in the Southeast. Although all members of the team are SCAD students, they lack a faculty adviser, and are not yet an official club. Jasmine Horn, a third-year animation student, is the league organizer for the Savannah Quidditch team. “Right now we’re just a group of kids who happen to go to SCAD, who play Quidditch, and we’re enjoying it so far … But clubship would be a great step forward.”
I tagged along with the team on the four-hour drive up to Athens. When we arrived at Myers Quad at UGA, the team was psyched. After three months of practice, they were ready. The team changed into their outfits: white softball tees with black sleeves and numbers on the front, with reversible black-and-gold capes. When I called the team’s outfits “costumes,” Magda Guichard, a graduate fibers student and the team’s Keeper and uniform designer, set me straight. “They’re not costumes, they’re uniforms. They might have capes, and we might look a little ridiculous running around the field in them, but they’re uniforms.”
Before the match, the team familiarized themselves with their surroundings. UGA utilizes a larger field of play than the SCAD team, so boundaries were adjusted. This sort of discrepancy is common in College Quidditch, as rules vary from school to school. UGA-style Quidditch is more like ultimate Frisbee, whereas SCAD’s version is closer to the rules set up by the IQA.
The IQA has released a first edition rulebook for the sport, but the rules of Muggle Quidditch are new and can vary widely. The rules evolve as the sport grows; rules that work are kept, and rules that don’t work are either discarded or replaced with new ones. In SCAD-style play, all action takes place on a field, with three hoops set on both sides that act as goals. All players must have brooms between their legs at all times. The object of the game is to score as many points as possible by throwing the Quaffle, a deflated volleyball, through one of the opponent’s hoops. This must be done while avoiding the bludgers, which are dodgeballs that, when struck, require the player to spin around three times. There is also the Golden Snitch, which is worth points, and, when caught, ends the game. In the wizard version of Quidditch, the Golden Snitch is a small, gold ball with wings that flies around the Quidditch pitch. In Muggle Quidditch, the snitch is Velcroed to the back of a player dressed in yellow, who has free reign to run or hide wherever he or she sees fit.
When the match began, the Snitch was released and given time to run before the seekers had the opportunity to chase after him. Play officially began with a loud “Brooms up!” and teams that were lined up on their respective sides rushed toward the center of the field.
It is difficult to describe what a Quidditch match looks like. “It’s like several games in one,” Horn explained. “You have the snitch chase … kind of like a tag game, you kind of have a rugby game with the chasers trying to score goals, and a dodgeball game with the beaters trying to hit bludgers against other players.”
Muggle Quidditch can be intense. At one point, players were pulled to the ground, scrambling for the Quaffle. Although a little rough at times, both teams were very cordial, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Two matches were played, both following the SCAD style of play.
UGA won both matches handedly, but the SCAD team didn’t seem too discouraged. Andre Frattino, a fifth-year sequential art student and team Seeker, told me, “We were playing a team that was better prepared, better equipped … It’s going to take a little bit more training.” Horn added, “The main challenge was getting here and seeing other teams play … We met a lot of great people and we played really hard, but the results are clear. We can only hope to do better next time.”
Regardless of how the team played, SCAD Quidditch is here to stay. Horn expressed interest in someday attending the Muggle Quidditch world cup at Middlebury College in Vermont. With hard work, they’ll make it. No magic required.
For more information about SCAD Quidditch, email Jasmine Horn at jahorn20@student.scad.edu.
