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The Day Quidditch Came To Kalamazoo

Greyson Steele
/
WMUK

Kids dressed as witches weren’t the only ones wielding brooms last weekend. College-age Quidditch players took to River Oaks Park near Galesburg to compete in the Great Lakes Regional Championship. It was hosted by U.S. Quidditch (USQ) and Discover Kalamazoo.

Quidditch is the fictional game played by characters in J.K. Rowling’s "Harry Potter" novels and the movies based on them. On the page and on the screen, players take to their brooms to soar through the sky to score goals. But the game came to the real world last weekend, minus the flying brooms. College students and their broomsticks came to Kalamazoo County to compete for a spot in the U.S .Quidditch Cup nationals. USQ Executive Director Sarah Woolsey says Quidditch is a mix of many traditional sports.

“There’s aspects of soccer, lacrosse, basketball, rugby, football, kind of all in one. And it creates an opportunity where people can play regardless of their experience because there are positions that are running and strategy heavy, there are positions that don’t involve as much running - there’s so much different going on that there’s something for everyone.”

Quidditch outside the fictional school Hogwarts first got attention in 2005 when students at Middlebury College in Vermont began playing the game. Ten years later, Woolsey says USQ’s mission is to create opportunities for safe and inclusive play.

Katelyn Feley is a senior at Grand Valley State University. She’s been playing Quidditch there since her freshman year. Feley says it’s one of her favorite activities.

“It’s just something I’m passionate about. It’s something we’re all kind of passionate about. We all have the drive to win. It’s a real sport to us. I know it seems a little fake to other people, but we really consider it as a real sport and so we put our hearts and soul into it.”

Casey Lowe is a freshman at Bowling Green State University, and a first-year quidditch player. Lowe says he’s gained a lot more than trophies playing the game.

“Oh man, so, so, so much team bonding. I mean there’s so many different kinds of people here with different beliefs and all that kind of thing. You know, so this is like, it’s a culture. Quidditch is really (about) new experiences (and) new people.”

Ten College teams from Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio took part in the Kalamazoo County tournament. Central Michigan University and the University of Michigan placed in the top five, earning automatic bids to the U.S. Quidditch Cup competition. It will be held in Round Rock, Texas, in April 2018.

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