OSU quidditch team brings magic to campus

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

There might not be flying broomsticks, but the game is still magical for the players of the OSU quidditch team. Quidditch, a sport that was born from the “Harry Potter” series, is a combination of rugby, dodgeball and tag.

"Hayden Applebee, playing the position of "chaser," hurdles over an opponent while attempting to score a goal."

“It’s a full-contact, co-ed sport,” said Hayden Applebee, the team’s captain and president. “We obviously don’t have magic like in the books. In real-life quidditch there’s impacts and huge hits. You can wrap someone up and take them to the ground to steal the ball.”

Quidditch is played with three “chasers,” two “beaters,” one “keeper” and one “seeker.” The chasers score goals with a volleyball (called a quaffle). The keeper defends the goal hoops from the opposing chasers by batting away the incoming quaffle with his hands. The beaters use dodge balls (called bludgers) to tag other players and interrupt gameplay. The seeker’s goal is to catch the “snitch.” In the books, the snitch is a small, golden orb with wings. In real-life, the snitch is a ball attached to the waistband of a snitch runner, a neutral athlete wearing a yellow uniform who uses any means necessary to avoid capture. Once the snitch is caught, the game ends.

Applebee, a political science junior from Woodward, Okla., joined the team three years ago. “I started off as strictly a chaser, but I’ve evolved into a utility player,” said Applebee. “I’ve had enough experience to play all of the positions pretty effectively.”

The OSU quidditch team plays in multiple tournaments each semester at various colleges, including the University of Texas and Kansas State University. Games last at least 18 minutes but don’t end until the snitch is caught. “My second official tournament ever, we played Oklahoma Baptist University for an hour and twenty minutes,” Applebee recalled. “That was the longest game I’ve ever heard of.”

Despite the popularity of the book series, Applebee has noticed one major setback to quidditch. “People don’t take it seriously,” he explained. “Even if you’re trying to recruit or you want to spark a conversation, everybody always laughs. You have to get used to that right off the bat.”

Applebee hopes that more spectators will come to the quidditch matches to understand the seriousness of the sport.

“A lot of people come for a love of Harry Potter and they stay for the sport.”

Story by Kim Hunter