Something that missed the tidbits this morning: Norwich University is screening the lastest installment of the Harry Potter franchise, Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part 1, tonight and tomorrow night at 9PM in Dole Auditorium. If you haven’t seen it, it’s the only good Harry Potter movie out there – well worth watching!
Started in Middlebury, Vermont, Quidditch has become a major campus phenomenon across the nation. This week, according to the Norwich Guidon (Norwich University’s student newspaper), the military school has begun a club of their own. During the World Cup held in New York City on November 13th and 14th, Norwich students attended the game, although not as participants.
From the Norwich Guidon:
The club’s commissioner, Sarah DeBouter, a 19-year-old sophomore majoring in English from Middlebury, Vt., started trying to establish it all her freshman year.
“I have successfully gotten it recognized as an official club by the Student Government Association this year. It’s only (been on campus) maybe a month and a half,” DeBouter said.Breena Hughes, a 19-year-old sophomore majoring in mechanical engineering from Forte Worth, Texas, said, “We are trying to get kids to play Quidditch (and) make it a good game and bring the book to life.”
Hughes is the treasurer for the club.
“We are trying to fundraise more. The more fundraising we do then the more budget we have,” said Hughes as she’s not planning on being able to afford team uniforms just yet.
“Our biggest fundraiser we are planning is tournament based. [During games] we will sell homemade goods, such as caldron cakes, butter beer and pumpkin pasties. These are things from the book but we can make them,” DeBouter said.
Hughes said that “our plan for now is to start having practices by the end of the semester and then scrimmages by the end of next.”
Sienna Morgan, a 19-year-old sophomore double major in English and communications from Dallas, Texas, is acting as the team captain.
“I will conduct tryouts and decide who gets to play in which matches. I help organize fundraising and stuff like that,” Morgan said.
Getting involved in the community is a large part of being a Quidditch team member.
“The community will be giving to us, so we want to be giving back to the community” DeBouter said.
“Right now we are possibly looking at having some read-a-thons to small children. To which we will read different Harry Potter excerpts from the books or teach them about Quidditch,” Morgan said.
“We are also planning on setting up little Quidditch matches with the children get really involved,” DeBouter said.
Make sure to watch out for this unique club on campus very soon.
(Kaitlin Nelson, Source)
The club has yet to formally start, but the plans to begin intigrating into the community are positive moves indeed. Norwich University has been working towards involving more students in extracurricular activities, and given the popularity of the sport (held in around 400 campuses around the nation), it comes as little surprised that the fad would come to Northfield, Vermont. The connections to the literary world are strong ones, and retaining a connection to the books is a good way to bring the students of Norwich, and younger readers, together.
Other campuses, such as Champlain College, have been rumored to be seeing the sport at some point in the near future.
In 2005, Middlebury college freshman Xander Manshel adapted Quidditch from its fantasy origins into real life, and while doing so, started a small phenomenon. Since its humble beginnings, the sport has expanded far beyond the Middlebury campus, with more than a hundred high schools and colleges participating in the game. This weekend, more than sixty of these schools will decend upon New York City’s De Witt Clinton Park in Manhatten for the International Quiddich Association’s World Cup.
Muggle Quidditch, as the ground based version is called, has been adapted from the books with realistic parameters, while retaining elements from the books. Three hoops on each end of the field are set up with three classes of balls. According to Wikipedia:
Chasers are responsible for passing the Quaffle and scoring points by throwing the Quaffle through one of the opponent’s goals. Three or four chasers from a team may be in play at one time. When a Bludger hits a Chaser in possession of the Quaffle, he or she must drop the Quaffle and run back to his or her own goalpost to simulate recovery time.
Keepers are the goal protectors (similar to goalkeepers in football(soccer)) and must try to block attempts to score by the opposing team’s Chasers. One keeper from a team may be in play at a time. In most versions of the game, the keeper is invulnerable to Bludgers when within a reasonable distance of his/her teams’ hoops. In other versions, when the keeper is hit by a bludger from the opposing team while that team is in scoring range, the keeper must freeze for 2–3 seconds to simulate the recovery time in magical Quidditch.
Beaters attempt to hit the opposing team’s players with Bludgers and attempt to block the Bludgers from hitting their team’s players. Two Beaters on a team may be in play at a time.
Seekers attempt to catch the Golden Snitch, set into play during the game. (In some variations the snitch is released at halftime, in others at an undisclosed time.) Seekers may play as Chasers before the Snitch’s release.
The sport, which saw its first intercollegiate match in 2007 (Middlebury vs. Vassar), has seen its World Cup matches played at the Middlebury campus in years past. Last year, twenty teams participated, but as the sport has grown in popularity, so to has the event. According to sources such as the Wall Street Journal and National Public Radio, some people have been pushing for the sport to recieve NCAA status, and the event in general has been covered heavily in the news. There is no word if author J.K. Rowling will be amongst the spectators.
This year, Middlebury College will be playing several games in New York City. Do the state proud!
Geek Mountain State 