At long last, Wellesley College is about to field a Quidditch team, according to the school’s student newspaper, The Wellesley News.
We’ve been poking around on this for years, stunned the school wasn’t at the forefront of this collegiate sports trend. After all, Wellesley College rings out the Harry Potter movie theme music from its bell tower on Halloween night.
Collegiate quidditch got its start in 2005 as an intramural sport at Middlebury College in Vermont and has gotten to the point of having an annual World Cup, according to the International Quidditch Association (photo above from the IQA).
Quidditch, if you don’t know, is a sport played on flying brooms in the Harry Potter books. But for those who can’t fly, a version has been adapted for ground play that does include many of the familiar characteristics of the books’ version of quidditch, including bludgers and a Golden Snitch. You can read the rules here.
Quidditch is also catching on at the high school level (in fact, Wellesley High is listed as having a team on the IQA website). One of our teenage neighbors told us recently she played quidditch at a birthday party and had a blast. There was also a Wellesley Recreation offering this summer that included quidditch among its activities.
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