Back to Hogwarts

Listen up, Muggles, the wizard community has allowed the non-magical world to play its famous game of Quidditch. The newfound sport found almost exclusively at schools is “Muggle Quidditch,” the Harry-Potter-derived sport for the magically disinclined.

Founded at Taylor by Andrew Beckstrom, sophomore, the club is still writing a constitution to make it an official athletics course. Ms. Poirrier is the sponsor, and the club will meet every other Friday on the practice fields behind the school. Regular meetings will be the Fridays between practices in Poirrier’s room.

The Muggle version of Quidditch is the strange offspring of rugby, dodgeball, basketball, and soccer – a full-contact sport in every sense – and is very similar to the Harry Potter version (sans-flying, unfortunately). Two teams of seven consist of three chasers, two beaters, a keeper, and a seeker; the goal is to score points to win.

Three chasers – the main offensive positions – throw the main game ball, the quaffle (a slightly deflated soccer ball), through the hoops (goals) to score points. Their task is to simply move the ball to the opposite side of the field and score by any means necessary (except kicking) – again, this is a full-contact sport.

Two beaters – essentially, boundless dodgeball/basketball players – are the main defenders for each team. Each beater has a bludger (a standard bouncy dodgeball) that they may throw at other players. Whoever is hit with a bludger must immediately stop what they are doing and walk back to their team’s goal before resuming play; chasers must also immediately throw the quaffle in the air when they are hit. Beaters must dribble their bludgers just like in basketball.

The keeper – basically, a glorified chaser – guards three hoops of different heights and has a small box where the chasers may not enter and bludgers may not be thrown to ensure fairness. The only difference between a keeper and a chaser are priorities; the keeper may at any time assume the duties of a chaser, at the expense of leaving the goal unattended of course.

The seeker – playing both flag football and an intense game of tag – chases after the snitch. The snitch is actually a person with a flag football belt that may run anywhere on campus and do anything necessary to evade both teams’ seekers – including climbing trees and tackling people. To slow the seekers down, they must skip and carry a broomstick between their legs. Catching the snitch (snatching the flag from the snitch’s belt) has three point values: zero points for the first catch, 50 points for the second catch, and 20 points for the third catch (the third catch immediately ends the game).

Cinco Ranch has already started a Muggle Quidditch club, where Andrew first played, and several inter-school matches have hammered out the details of the game. Katy ISD Muggles did not agree with the rules set forth by the Intercollegiate Quidditch Association (the league started by the creators of Muggle Quidditch that has dozens of participating colleges across the country), so they created a slightly altered version. High schools are not yet organized grounds for Quidditch, but Katy, Texas may be the hub of this new athletic venture.