If you missed your letter from Hogwarts on your 11th birthday, you can still enjoy the magic of quidditch. If the last sentence made no sense to you, this story is about one of the most inclusive, full contact, professional sports ever created how to play it in Vancouver.
Austin Wallace has been playing the sport of quidditch for the past six years and is a member of Vancouver’s newest team, Vanguard Quidditch. The game, plucked from the pages of the Harry Potter books, has allowed him to travel, introduced him to many new friends as well as a worldwide community -- and it almost didn’t happen.
Seven years ago Wallace was attending the University of British Columbia when he was first introduced to the sport, which he initially refused to play.
"I really genuinely thought it was just people running around casting spells thinking they were Harry Potter,” Wallace said, although curiosity eventually got the better of him. "I gave it a shot it was immediately my favourite sport by far of all time and I've been playing it ever since."
The reason for Wallace’s change of heart? He quickly found quidditch players were far from cloak-wearing, bespectacled Harry Potter cosplayers.
"It is people who are very competitive but don't take themselves that seriously," Wallace said, adding that the number of “frat bro types” cool with having a broom between their legs and playing a sport from Harry Potter is very low.
"There's some nerd culture because some people do come from the Harry Potter part and there's genuinely people who play that have never read the books or seen the movies," Wallace said.
How to play
The muggle version of quidditch has had to make some adaptations to account for flying broomsticks, bloodthirsty bludgers and the ever-evasive golden snitch.
Instead of Nimbus 2000s and Firebolts, players “ride on” a piece of PVC pipe by holding it between their legs. A slightly deflated volleyball plays the part of the quaffle, the game's primary method of scoring points. The quaffle is passed through one of three hoops at either end of the pitch by chasers to score.
Three dodge balls represent the bludgers that players called beaters use to knock other players out of the game temporarily.
After 18 minutes of this full-contact combination of dodge ball and rugby, each team releases a seeker. The seekers chase after a neutral player who has a small gold ball attached to their back representing the snitch. The snitch can do whatever it takes to avoid having the ball taken but if they are unsuccessful three points are awarded to the team that made the catch.
Strategy without so much technicality
Aside from its obvious uniqueness in origin, Wallace says the bludger aspect of the game sets it apart from other sports and allows for people from all different backgrounds to succeed.
“It really is if you're a chaser, you hold the ball, sprint down a field and you pass normally overhand,” Wallace said. “It's really a lot more about athleticism in general.”
"That helped me and I was able to actually make Team Canada within a couple of years of playing after not really having a ton of competitive sports experience going into it."
Mixed-gender and full contact
Already a highly unique sport, quidditch offers another rare trait in sports, you are your gender -- no questions asked.
“That I think is really cool and makes it a lot more accepting of a sport for people who aren't from the gender binary" Wallace said. "It's the only sport that is mixed gender full contact at the highest levels."
Wallace elaborated that players are instructed to be cognizant of size differences when deciding how hard to tackle other players but aside from that it's largely free game.
“Often have this really weird thing about, 'Oh, I can't hit a woman.' You both signed up for this and consented to this full-contact sport, it's disrespectful for you to not fully engage,” Wallace explained.
Accio broom!
You can try your hand at quidditch quite easily, Vanguard Quidditch hosts regular practices on Sunday mornings at Burnaby’s Central Park at 11 a.m. where newcomers are welcome to try out the sport.
More information can be found on Vanguard Quidditch’s Facebook group or you can join their Discord server.
