Quidditch conjures images of flying broomsticks, the boy who lived and Oscar nominated CGI. Despite its fantastical and fictional nature, several places, including University of Missouri-Columbia, have created Quidditch teams that train and compete despite being grounded, unlike their cinematic counterpart. The newest addition to this league of almost wizards is the Bruins.
Dumbledore’s Army, sponsored by Rachel Reed, is creating RBHS’ inaugural Quidditch team. While the team is now small, its members look forward to growth. Reed said that the team is still looking for participants of all levels of experience and athletic ability. The players have honest goals for themselves.
“Well, it’s our first year of being a Quidditch team so I’m not expecting the best,” Senior Jackson Keller said, “But I’m gonna try anyway.”
Keller and his team mates will have to try their best. The Bruins are lined up to play Hickman, Battle and North Callaway County in the coming season. All three of these teams have a tradition of competing and finely tuned squads. Although the Bruins face fierce opponents, their focus is to build up the team and to have a blast doing it.
“I don’t think we have enough students to have a team so we can compete with some of the other schools,” Reed said, “And just to have students have another athletic outlet that’s not the intensity or the time commitment of a varsity sport or even some the other club sports that are at RB.”
For those familiar with Harry Potter, Quidditch may not seem like the go to sport for a bout of leisurely activity. In the book it is described as intense, dangerous and most notably above ground. Fans of the series have found ways to circumvent these challenges and have even created standardized rules for the game.
Like any sport, the Quidditch team will need to put in it’s fair share of practice before they are ready to take to the field and compete. Although the practices will lack the grievous injuries and vomiting of slugs detailed in the Harry Potter books, they will attempt to preserve the same sense of magic and camaraderie.
“ I don’t think that [practice] will be very intense or stressful or overly rigorous.” Reed said. “I think it mostly be fun like come play, run, try and throw these balls into a giant hoop and enjoy yourself.”
While the rules, competitions and even the uniforms are lined up, the team still has much to accomplish before their season kicks off. Beyond adding members to the team, junior Lisa Zhuang wants to inspire the whole student body to rally behind RBHS newest team.
“Hopefully we’ll go around get people to be excited about this. This isn’t just some random thing or club at the side, we’re gonna get people excited.” Zhuang said. “This is the actual event and activity at Rock Bridge and hopefully make it so that each year that more people get more excited about this and make it a tradition.”
There are a plethora of sports to rally behind at RBHS, but none with the whimsy of Quidditch. The team’s goal is to create a fun casual environment for its players.
“It’s competitive but it’s not like there’s anything huge like the football team or the baseball team.” Keller said. “There’s no big championships were just kinda doing this because we want to and it’s fun.”
His teammate Zhuang echoed his remarks. While she enjoys competition, she enjoys being able to just relax and play. Even though Quidditch is fiction, it can be argued that having fun and playing the game is what makes any sport worthwhile.
“I like sports right, I like outdoor activities, I like having fun, but as a member of the tennis team I can say those sports, they can be very competitive and very intense at time.” Zhuang said. “So this is something that is very nice. It’s competitive but their aren’t really any heavy stress or weights on you.
Will you be joining the RBHS Quidditch team? Let us know in the comments below.