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The UNM Quidditch team’s biggest obstacle isn’t funding, membership or rechartering — it’s gravity.
Luckily for the team, “Muggle Quidditch” was invented seven years ago, with a comprehensive rulebook that explains how to play the sport on the ground.
Quidditch is soaring in popularity at colleges throughout the country, and student Nichole Bosas plans on expanding this once-fictional sport to UNM.
Bosas is co-captain of the newly born UNM Quidditch team, alongside co-captain Seth Kazmar. Bosas first dabbled with the broom-dominated sport in 2010, after a friend recommended playing for the Illinois State University team. Bosas had never seen or read any Harry Potter material before attending her first Quidditch practice — rather, her background in soccer and ice hockey kicked in when playing the aggressive sport. She still hasn’t read the books or seen the movies.
Quidditch is based on a fictional sport of the same name from J.K. Rowling’s best-selling Harry Potter books and movie series, which are about a young wizard named Harry who attends a school of magic called Hogwarts. “Muggle” — or nonmagical — Quidditch features many of the same rules as the fictional game, except the snitch is a person and other rules make the game gravity-friendly.
UNM’s Quidditch team began in early September, allowing players old and new to join the group. Although the team has only held two practices, eager UNM students have warmly met the developing team. At one point during their first practice, a student who claimed to be a basketball player admitted he would love to join the team if he wasn’t already on the basketball team. Bosas said the sport’s reception has improved since she played with teams at Illinois State and Kentucky State.
“When we would walk to practice on campus, people would give us the worst looks ever and give us smart comments, like ‘Oh, where are your wands at?’ Yeah, that gets old after a time,” Bosas said. “Once they really find out it’s a competitive sport, and find out the rules and how they play it, then I think they develop an interest in it, rather than stereotyping it or making all these false statements about it.”
Bosas said that as complicated and as silly as the sport can be, its demanding nature is no laughing matter. She has played against teams from across the country and has seen players go down with serious injuries, from deep scratches to broken bones. Bosas once took a blow from a broom, leaving her with a swollen black eye.
“I’m just saying, lacrosse players have protection and we definitely don’t. It’s just us and our brooms,” she said.
Student Shirley Johnson, who plays as keeper, said she likes to take it easy near the hoops she defends, but she is at the forefront of promoting the sport throughout New Mexico. Johnson’s foray into the sport began seven years ago when she was approached to help organize a Harry Potter birthday party for her friend’s daughter.
“It had Quidditch, it had potions class, it had a basilisk piñata, it had a Sorting Hat and a quill fang, a class picture, everybody got a wand, I made butterbeer — I made everything,” Johnson said.
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“It was a day at Hogwarts, and the invitations were on parchment, and they said ‘Congratulations, you’ve been selected to attend a day at Hogwarts.’ I put together this party to end all parties.”
After the party was over, Johnson said she packed up her Quidditch gear and never expected to use it again. But two years ago, she received an email linking to the International Quidditch Association’s website. She started posting fliers to start a Quidditch team after noticing there were no registered teams from New Mexico, but with no luck. That is, until she met Bosas and Kazmar two years later.
Kazmar said he had never played Quidditch before, but his love for Harry Potter drove him to start an official UNM team. Kazmar said that with Bosas’s experience with the game and Johnson’s ability to create equipment, he hopes the three can build a solid team.
UNM’s team is hoping to attend this year’s West by Southwest Interregional Showcase, a Quidditch tournament held at Balloon Fiesta Park this November.
Although Kazmar said he was unsure how the team will do at this year’s tournament, he was glad he could help grow an athletic movement for kids not generally involved with sports.
“We want this to be a growing sport in New Mexico, especially because a lot of kids across the nation do get involved with this,” Kazmar said. “We’re big advocates for kids getting active in sports, getting out there and playing, so the kids who may not feel comfortable going out there for football and who love Harry Potter or want to play a fun game, we can at least get those kids involved.”
Quidditch
is played on an oval field called a “pitch” and features three towering hoops at each end of the field. Each team is assigned a set of hoops to defend, and each team tries to attack the opposing team’s hoops. All players must hold a broom between their legs at all times. Each team has three chasers, two beaters, a keeper and a seeker.
The chasers are in charge of throwing the quaffle — a partially deflated volleyball — through the opposing team’s hoops for 10 points.
The beaters set out to hit the other team’s players with bludgers — partially deflated dodge balls — to “knock them off their brooms,” at which point the player must run to their home hoops before returning to the field.
The team’s keeper is in charge of protecting their team’s hoops, while the seeker is in charge of catching the snitch — a cross country runner draped in a bright yellow uniform, with a ball in a sock wrapped around their belt. The first team’s seeker to grab the sock scores the team 50 points and ends the match.
While the chasers and the beaters battle it out on the pitch, the snitch is allowed to leave the field throughout the first 15 minutes and hide in nearby trash cans and bushes. The snitch will often tease the seekers, squirting nearby players with squirt guns or doing flips on the field.
Those interested in joining UNM’s Quidditch team can send the group a message at its Facebook page, facebook.com/pages/University-of-New-Mexico Quidditch/414583555244754
