BYOB: Bring Your Own Broomstick
It’s a mantra that can be used by the many athletes who play this fictional game gone reality. The sport is quidditch, and it’s a craze that has swept the globe ever since a 2003 Harry Potter convention in Orlando held the first-ever quidditch tournament.
Nick Murado, a second year law student at UF, was there to witness that piece of HP history and has been involved with the sport ever since.
“I just saw this sign-up sheet for quidditch and I thought, ‘I like sports. I can do this,’ and the rest is history,” Murado said.
Through the Nimbus 2003 convention, Murado learned not only how to play this sport originally designed for wizards on flying broomsticks, but also how to referee it. He even had the opportunity to be an announcer and call the games play by play.
With all this experience under his belt, Murado knew he had to be a part of UF’s quidditch team when it first started in fall 2009. He quickly became a leader of the team and is now proud to say that he is their coach.
Although quidditch may sound like a simple sport to some, Murado insists that there is much more to the game than just catching the snitch and throwing the quaffel through your opponent’s goal.
“If you imagine the amount of strategy and coaching that you can do with a basketball team, if you add another player that just adds to the entire dimension,” Murado said. “There are tons of plays you can draw up in quidditch.”
In a quidditch match, each team has seven players on the field. There are the chasers who try to get the quaffle, the main ball of the game, and throw it into the opposing team’s goal. The keepers defend the goal and the beaters hit opposing team members with dodgeballs, forcing them to run back to their goal before they can return to the play.
And of course, who could forget the seekers, the infamous position played by Harry Potter himself. Their job is to capture the snitch, which is worth more points than anything else in a quidditch match. To simulate the same challenge that HP and all other Hogwarts seekers face, a tennis ball is placed inside of a sock and that sock is tucked into the shorts of a neutral player. That player runs around the field while one seeker from every team tries the grab the sock.
“It’s a lot harder than it sounds,” Murado said. “The snitch can push the seekers away to defend himself and the seekers can’t retaliate.”
As with most sports, practice makes perfect and Murado encourages anyone who is even slightly interested in quidditch to come out to a practice and give the game a try.
“We have a philosophy of taking everyone on the team,” Murado said. “Even if you’re not athletic or don’t have much skill, it’s a matter of persistence… People keep coming because they have fun and the more they play, the better they get.”
The UF Quidditch Team’s performance at the recent regional tournament is a testament to their ability and perseverance, according to Murado. Six teams, including players from the University of South Florida and University of Miami, gathered in Gainesville for the battle.
They were competing not only for the coveted title of Swamp Cup champion but also for a chance to compete in the Quidditch World Cup hosted every year by the International Quidditch Association.
Although the Gators did not win the tournament, they did make it to the play-offs and as a result, will be seeded into the Quidditch World Cup that will be held in New York this upcoming November.
“Quidditch is played in every continent and it really is in a lot of countries. Quidditch is just huge,” said Murado who is looking forward to the intense competition that awaits him and his team.
Murado and the UF Quidditch Team are still reeling from the tournament and are still deciding what their strategies will be in the next few months of preparation.
“ Right now it’s a more about taking in what we just did [at the Swamp Cup], resting and figuring out our plan for the future,” Murado explained.
While they all may be undecided on their strategy, one thing is clear and set in stone: their ultimate goal.
“We want to win the World Cup, of course,” Murado said. “Anything short of that is just unacceptable.”
With the last film of the Harry Potter series coming out in theatres this summer, Murado said he is not worried about the future popularity of quidditch or the HP craze as a whole.
“The good thing about the Potter culture is that it’s very inclusive and it’s very easy to get into,” he said. “I don’t think Harry Potter is anywhere near dead. It’s going to be around for a long time.”