On Sunday November 17th, The Stockton Quidditch Club held its bi-yearly quidditch tournament. Before the tournament, participants in the quidditch club signed up to play on one of four quidditch teams: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Slytherin. Each of these teams represent the four houses in the famous Harry Potter series, the world in which quidditch is set. However, rather than flying on brooms, Stockton quidditch uses pool noodles, and the other rules also differ slightly.

In Stockton Quidditch, there are four different positions: Chaser, Beater, Keeper, and Seeker. The chaser’s job is to throw one of the balls, the quaffle, through one of three hoops that the opposite team’s keeper guards. A score through one of the hoops counts as 10 points. The beater throws one of three black balls, called the bludger, at the other team’s teammates to try to knock them off their brooms. When this happens, the player runs back to their team’s goalposts before resuming normal play. The seeker tries to catch the snitch, usually a track runner, all dressed in yellow running around the field. This is worth 30 points and ends the game.

Everyone arrived at the intramural fields at 9:30 AM to warm up and set up for the tournament. Each team played a total of 3 practice games, one against each opposing team, to figure out the matchup for the tournament. The team I was on, Hufflepuff, took 2nd place in the practice games, and ended up playing against the 3rd place team, which was Ravenclaw. Hufflepuff beat Ravenclaw, while Slytherin won against Gryffindor. Ravenclaw and Gryffindor played each other for 3rd place, in which Gryffindor won, and then the final game between Hufflepuff and Slytherin was played. The game was close, but in the end Slytherin’s seeker caught the snitch and won them the game. Though Hufflepuff ended up in 2nd place, the tournament was a lot of fun, and I can’t wait to play in the next one!