Team members sporting their new jerseys, fresh out of the box.
The University of Southern Mississippi has its own Quidditch team.
Quidditch is based on the fictional sport made up entirely by J.K Rowling in her fictional series of books, Harry Potter. There is a good chance you have heard of these books. There are eight movies out on dvd based on the novels.
You might also know that there is no such thing as magic, flying broomsticks and snitches that wiz around at will. So how on earth is it possible to adapt Quidditch to our "muggle" or "non-magical folk" world? Well, college students across the nation and around the world make due. They keep the broomsticks but they do not fly, and people stand in as "snitch runners." Other than that, the game is virtually identical to the Quidditch sport played in the wizarding world of Harry Potter.
In each Quidditch team, there are three chasers, two beaters, a keeper, a seeker and a snitch runner.
The object of the game is to score as many points as possible by throwing the quaffle into one of the three goal posts until the snitch is caught. The team that catches the snitch first wins.
Nicolas Kubicki, the captain of USM Quidditch, plays a Chaser.
"As a chaser, I use the quaffle... to run down the field and try to score, working with the other chasers and the keeper on my team to basically work around the other team's defense and try to make a score," Kubicki said.
Shaun Leavines, from Picayune, MS, also plays a Chaser.
"It's a fun sport," Leavines said. "I love scoring."
Heather Burg plays a Beater.
"It's a new sport where you can show athleticism, but it's not the typical hit a ball, run around bases type of thing," Burg said. "It gives you excitement."
The Southern Miss Quidditch team got its start in October of 2011. Ever since then, the team has worked diligently to become known within the Quidditch community. They played in Southern Regionals, a group of games based on the region a team is located in in the United States, and placed fourth in that.
That high ranking earned the team a spot in the World Cup, a renowned place in the history of Quidditch. The World Cup has been held annually since 2005, according to World Cup Quidditch. USM Quidditch did not win the World Cup, but that does not discourage them from trying harder next year and every year after that.
"We lost every game we played, but we had a blast," Fondren said of the team's experience in Kissimmee, Fla. at the World Cup, which was held on April 13-14.
For more information about the Southern Miss Golden Eagles Quidditch team, visit their website.
