The club that I knew I wanted to join at Siena before I even started going here was Quidditch club. As a big Harry Potter fan and especially after watching the Quidditch College World Cup on Snapchat, I knew it was something I really wanted to do in college. However, you might have a few questions about Quidditch club, like: what even is Quidditch? How does Quidditch work for a bunch of muggles? Is Quidditch actually a sport?
If you don’t already know what Quidditch is, it’s a sport in the Harry Potter book series where players fly around on brooms while trying to score points in various different ways- think of it kind of like a wizard’s version of football. At Hogwarts, the 4 different houses play against each other and there are international teams that all play against each other in the Quidditch World Cup. So basically, Quidditch is a pretty big deal if you’re a witch or wizard.
Points are mainly scored by shooting a ball called a quaffle through various hoops, but this is also why other balls called bludgers are chasing after you and trying to knock you off your broom. The game is automatically won when a tiny golden ball with wings called the snitch is caught by a seeker.
In the muggle world, quaffles are volleyballs, bludgers are dodgeballs, and the snitch is a tennis ball attached to someone with Velcro. As for brooms, pvc pipes are typically used and must be held onto as the players run around.
Quidditch actually can be a pretty intense and complicated sport, and is actually the only co-ed full contact sport that exists. There are actually hundreds of college Quidditch teams all across the country! At Siena, we are a new club so we are starting to build all of the hoops necessary to play the game, and then we will start practicing in March. For now we are going to play amongst ourselves, but hopefully we will soon be able to meet up with teams from other schools to play in actual games! While it’s still cold out, we like to meet up every few weeks, nerd out about Harry Potter, play games and watch shows. We also are planning on making our own shirts for the club and having possible movie nights too!
Anyone who is interested can still join, just contact the president (JP, j15digi@siena.edu) for more information!