Quidditch team brings magic to Mason, disappointment to opponents

 While some sports teams are trying to find the best play for a slam-dunk or to score the winning touchdown, there is a group of athletes at Mason packing up their broom­sticks and quaffles for the next quidditch game.

Quidditch has become a popular sport amongst the generation of young adults who grew up reading the books. The sport is a mix of rugby, dodgeball and tag. According to the International Quidditch Association official website, quidditch is played worldwide by over 300 teams.

Mason Quidditch started with a Facebook page of students interested in making a club. After two years of noncompetitive practice, the group of friends decided to make the team official.

“There were a couple of posts on the Facebook page and someone said, ‘well let’s start this thing!’” said Chris Pavlovych, captain of Mason’s quidditch team. “There were three or four of us that got together, and we just went for it.”

Students quickly took to the idea of playing competitively, and the newly-formed quid­ditch team targeted their recruiting and advertising to the class of 2017’s Facebook page, ending up with a solid team of about 25 members.

“There’s the competitive aspect of the game, and then there’s the people who just like the movies and books and stuff. So it kind of brings together a mix of those two groups, which is pretty sweet,” Pavlovych said.

The game of quidditch played here in the muggle world of college students is modeled after the game played in Harry Potter’s wizarding world.

Each team one keeper, three chasers, two beaters and a seeker for a total of seven players on the field. Just like in the books and movies, a chaser can score ten points by putting a quaffle through one of the three goals. The game ends when the seeker catches the snitch, earning his or her team 30 points.

Due to the lack of magic in muggle quid­ditch, the snitch is placed on the back of a non-affiliated athlete who is chased around by the two seekers.

Mason’s quidditch team practices on the field located on George Mason Boulevard and takes place on Tuesdays from 4:30-6 p.m., Thursdays from 6-7:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 11-1 p.m. On Saturdays, Mason Quidditch usually competes in a scrimmage against another local team. The quidditch team is in the process of becoming a regis­tered student organization, making it easier for the group to reach out to others interested in the sport. Mason’s quidditch team is a part of the Virginia Quidditch League, in which they play a handful of Virginia schools that have teams, Pavlovych said.

The team is also working to be a part of the IQA next year so that they can have a chance to play for the Quidditch World Cup.