2015 King’s Cup Quidditch Tournament, Syracuse DASonnenfeld | Creative Commons
What if Saddleback had it’s own team?
Saddleback is known to host a variety of sports with something for every student to enjoy. However, there is a distinct lack of a certain fantastical sport within the campus. Quidditch.
Quidditch is a sport that anyone who has read the Harry Potter series should know about. Two of the main trio participated in this fast-paced athletic activity and it has become an iconic part of the Wizarding World.
In 2005, Xander Manshel and Alex Benepe founded the first U.S. college quidditch team at Middlebury College in Vermont. Throughout the years, the sport gained popularity and now there is an official league with teams from a large group of universities, including Yale, Harvard, UCLA and UCI.
The rules of the sport are reasonably understandable. It is a mix of lacrosse, rugby, dodgeball, and tag. There are seven players on each of the two teams, which consist of three chasers, one keeper, two beaters and one seeker.
At each end of the field, there are three hoops, which are guarded by the keeper. It is the job of the chasers to get the quaffle, which is actually just a volleyball, into the hoops to score points for their team.
The beaters push and block the players to prevent them from scoring. They carry bludgers, which are dodgeballs, that they can throw at the other players. Should a player be hit by a bludger, they must stop whatever they’re doing, and drop the quaffle if they happen to be holding it, and tag their own team’s hoop in order to return to the game.
The seeker is in charge of catching the snitch, which is a neutral person with a yellow Velcro flag around their waist. Once the snitch is caught, the game ends and the successful seeker is awarded 30 points for their team.
The game is gender-neutral with teams consisting of members of different genders rather than separating them. It should also be mentioned that the whole sport is played with a broom between the players’ legs at all times with the exception of the snitch.
Saddleback does not have a team yet, though out of 100 surveyed people at Saddleback, 75% of them showed favorable reactions towards the possibility for a Saddleback quidditch team.
Sawyer Trumbly, student at Saddleback, says that he grew up loving Harry Potter and believes that quidditch would make a great sport for Saddleback College since it would be a great opportunity to have some fun and make new friends.
“It’s something you can kind of pick up,” Trumbly said. “It’s not like something— a lot of the sports here, it’s like you kind of have to be doing it from a young age.”
Samuel Gomes, a Saddleback student and Ravenclaw, thinks positively of the sport, though it’s a shame that flying is not yet possible.
“I think it would be pretty fun,” he said. “I don’t know what the actual length of the field of the pitch is but I think that would be fun and like, the more that kids get exposed to the game, it’d be good and then as soon as we get those flying— it’s gonna happen. It’s gonna happen.”
Paige Kujan, a nursing major and Ravenclaw, stated that she would if Saddleback had a team, she would definitely want to join as a team manager or as someone cheering from the sidelines since she claims to not be very good at sports.
“There’s like a few issues regarding, you know, if you get one little golden ball you win. But otherwise, I feel like it’s a very fun game,” she said. “If we could possibly get people to fly, that would be the best way to execute the sport but as muggles we have to see what we can do.”
Eva Ahmad, a communications studies major, agrees that having quidditch at Saddleback would be a great idea.
“I think it would be awesome if they offered quidditch to students here at Saddleback because it would diversify the sports field,” Ahmad said. “Especially for people who don’t want to play football, you know, the generic sports that we are used to or baseball, swim.”
Not everyone was for the sport, with some students stating they’d rather see the campus add more parking than adding another class to the long list that already exists. Some don’t see how the current school budget would be able to fit that in.
Others, like Saddleback journalism student, Lariat staff writer and sports editor Trevor Speetzen, do not view quidditch as an official sport since he believes it doesn’t require strategies.
“I think it’s a made up game from a book, while games are fun, an official sport is something that takes skill and strategy,” he said. “People running around with brooms between their legs doesn’t take a lot of strategy.”
It is uncertain whether a team will be founded at Saddleback in the future at all. Overall, the majority of students agree that it would be a fun idea and at the very least entertaining.
“I’m rooting for them,” Saddleback student Sophia Roye said. “I would love to see people running around with brooms between their legs.”
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Down for some quidditch?
2015 King’s Cup Quidditch Tournament, Syracuse DASonnenfeld | Creative Commons
What if Saddleback had it’s own team?
Saddleback is known to host a variety of sports with something for every student to enjoy. However, there is a distinct lack of a certain fantastical sport within the campus. Quidditch.
Quidditch is a sport that anyone who has read the Harry Potter series should know about. Two of the main trio participated in this fast-paced athletic activity and it has become an iconic part of the Wizarding World.
In 2005, Xander Manshel and Alex Benepe founded the first U.S. college quidditch team at Middlebury College in Vermont. Throughout the years, the sport gained popularity and now there is an official league with teams from a large group of universities, including Yale, Harvard, UCLA and UCI.
The rules of the sport are reasonably understandable. It is a mix of lacrosse, rugby, dodgeball, and tag. There are seven players on each of the two teams, which consist of three chasers, one keeper, two beaters and one seeker.
At each end of the field, there are three hoops, which are guarded by the keeper. It is the job of the chasers to get the quaffle, which is actually just a volleyball, into the hoops to score points for their team.
The beaters push and block the players to prevent them from scoring. They carry bludgers, which are dodgeballs, that they can throw at the other players. Should a player be hit by a bludger, they must stop whatever they’re doing, and drop the quaffle if they happen to be holding it, and tag their own team’s hoop in order to return to the game.
The seeker is in charge of catching the snitch, which is a neutral person with a yellow Velcro flag around their waist. Once the snitch is caught, the game ends and the successful seeker is awarded 30 points for their team.
The game is gender-neutral with teams consisting of members of different genders rather than separating them. It should also be mentioned that the whole sport is played with a broom between the players’ legs at all times with the exception of the snitch.
Saddleback does not have a team yet, though out of 100 surveyed people at Saddleback, 75% of them showed favorable reactions towards the possibility for a Saddleback quidditch team.
Sawyer Trumbly, student at Saddleback, says that he grew up loving Harry Potter and believes that quidditch would make a great sport for Saddleback College since it would be a great opportunity to have some fun and make new friends.
“It’s something you can kind of pick up,” Trumbly said. “It’s not like something— a lot of the sports here, it’s like you kind of have to be doing it from a young age.”
Samuel Gomes, a Saddleback student and Ravenclaw, thinks positively of the sport, though it’s a shame that flying is not yet possible.
“I think it would be pretty fun,” he said. “I don’t know what the actual length of the field of the pitch is but I think that would be fun and like, the more that kids get exposed to the game, it’d be good and then as soon as we get those flying— it’s gonna happen. It’s gonna happen.”
Paige Kujan, a nursing major and Ravenclaw, stated that she would if Saddleback had a team, she would definitely want to join as a team manager or as someone cheering from the sidelines since she claims to not be very good at sports.
“There’s like a few issues regarding, you know, if you get one little golden ball you win. But otherwise, I feel like it’s a very fun game,” she said. “If we could possibly get people to fly, that would be the best way to execute the sport but as muggles we have to see what we can do.”
Eva Ahmad, a communications studies major, agrees that having quidditch at Saddleback would be a great idea.
“I think it would be awesome if they offered quidditch to students here at Saddleback because it would diversify the sports field,” Ahmad said. “Especially for people who don’t want to play football, you know, the generic sports that we are used to or baseball, swim.”
Not everyone was for the sport, with some students stating they’d rather see the campus add more parking than adding another class to the long list that already exists. Some don’t see how the current school budget would be able to fit that in.
Others, like Saddleback journalism student, Lariat staff writer and sports editor Trevor Speetzen, do not view quidditch as an official sport since he believes it doesn’t require strategies.
“I think it’s a made up game from a book, while games are fun, an official sport is something that takes skill and strategy,” he said. “People running around with brooms between their legs doesn’t take a lot of strategy.”
It is uncertain whether a team will be founded at Saddleback in the future at all. Overall, the majority of students agree that it would be a fun idea and at the very least entertaining.
“I’m rooting for them,” Saddleback student Sophia Roye said. “I would love to see people running around with brooms between their legs.”
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Lizeth Tello