Amanda Romeiser
One quaffle, three chasers, two bludgers, two beaters, one keeper, one snitch, one seeker, and most importantly seven brooms, also known as PVC pipes to Muggles, are the necessary positions and equipment to field a Quidditch team. Muggle Quidditch is a co-ed full contact sport, which has its origins in J.K. Rowling’s thrilling Harry Potter series, that uniquely combines rugby, dodgeball, and tag into one magical game. Here at Stockton the Ospreys embrace the “Three Cs” of Quidditch: competition, creativity, and community, which were all evident during their first official United States Quidditch tournament of the season and first annual Pumpkin Spice Cup, held on Sunday, October 25, 2016. This tournament successfully brought together the local community and families into one entertaining event replete with crowd-pleasing games.
I experienced this event as both a player and an observer. As a first year Quidditch player on the Stockton team I am still very new to the sport. This tournament gave me the opportunity to both compete against and observe teams, like the Warriors and the Honey Badgers, that ranked within the top 50 teams in the nation in the 2015- 2016 season. There was no shortage of competition at this tournament. From full contact tackling to complete shutouts this tournament saw it all. Just as in any other sport Quidditch requires a sense of creativity to achieve success. After each of our four games our captains discussed news ways to handle different situations throughout the games. Although, we were not successful in the traditional sense in this tournament, meaning we did not win, each challenge we faced led us to improvement.
In accordance with the overall atmosphere that Quidditch presents, the Pumpkin Spice Cup had a very strong sense of community. I received an overwhelming amount of support from not only my teammates but from other players and referees, who enabled this tournament to be an incredible learning experience for myself. As a player and an observer the chants were my favorite part of the tournament and are an excellent representation of the Quidditch community. Each team has a unique chant that is performed before each of their games that not only successfully heightens the energy of the team but the crowd as well, drawing them into the magical game.
We as the Stockton Ospreys have a long road of improvement ahead of us. The journey is not going to be easy, but with our brooms in hand we have hope for the rest of the 2016-2017 season.