Quidditch gets galleons, prepares for World Cup
Emerson team joins Intercollegiate Quidditch Association, achieves club status
Anita Vukovic
Issue date: 10/16/08 Section: Lifestyle
They’re the kids you see running around Boston Common with improvised broomsticks between their legs, throwing volleyballs into hoops. If you’re quick, you might even spot the “snitch,” a student in yellow flitting around with a tennis ball in a sock pinned to his back. They’re a part of the Emerson Quidditch Team, and they promise they’re not crazy.
Intercollegiate Quidditch, based on the fantastical wizarding sport from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, has been gaining popularity across the nation since 2006, when Xander Manshel, who was then a freshman at Middlebury College in Vermont, started the country’s first collegiate Quidditch team.
The sport made its way to Emerson this past spring where it started as a small student group of fourth-floor Little Building residents run by sophomores Jared Kowalczyk, a film production major, and digital post-production major Kathryn Peters. As interest in the group grew, Kowalczyk and Peters approached the Athletic Department and requested funding and permission to make it an official club in the fall of 2008.
Every year, the Athletic Department funds three different school clubs, allotting $500 to each. The funding was given to the dance, hockey and Quidditch teams.
“With the group’s success last year, we decided to give the team a chance,” said Roger Crosley, Emerson’s coordinator of athletic operations. “We thought it would fit in perfectly at Emerson.”
Kowalczyk asked his research writing teacher Elizabeth Parfitt, a professor in the writing, literature and publishing department to be the Quidditch advisor. As advisor to the club, Parfitt is the go-to for extra funding if they should need it.
The team has also joined the Intercollegiate Quidditch Association, which includes more than 160 colleges and 30 high schools across the United States. The Emerson Quidditch Team will participate in this year’s Intercollegiate Quidditch World Cup Festival hosted by Middlebury College on Oct. 26.
For a few team members, this trip is one of the club’s main attractions.
“I’m really excited that we’ve become an organization and that so many people have expressed interest, but I’m especially excited to go to the World Cup,” said Jeff Kulig, a sophomore digital post-production major who participated in last year’s group as well.
The club’s “league team,” the team that will represent Emerson at the World Cup and other intercollegiate matches, will be comprised of 10, handpicked members.
The 10 will be chosen from the four or five teams currently playing at Emerson, said Kowalczyk. The team going to the World Cup will be picked through an open scrimmage on Boston Common. That match will allow captains to scout and recruit players. The date for the scrimmage has not yet been set.
Already 176 Emerson students have signed up for the club on student organizational fair, and newcomers are excited for what this year has to offer.
“I got here and I was like, Quidditch?” said freshman Drew Graziano, a media arts major. “I guarantee I’ll never get another opportunity to play in organized Quidditch. I couldn’t pass this up.”
Others are just as excited about the wizarding wear involved.
“I’m just stoked to wear cloaks and robes and use broomsticks,” said Carmen Chung, a freshman visual and media arts major, who is almost done knitting her scarlet and gold Gryffindor-inspired scarf.
For now, the team has ordered T-shirts. They will be on sale to students and faculty throughout the week of Oct. 13 outside of the Little Building dining hall for $15 each. Shirts are purple, with “Emerson College” and Quidditch’s signature three hoops printed on them in gold. So far, $600 has already been raised through advanced orders, but members are hoping to collect even more.
“We’re trying very hard to raise as much money as possible,” said sophomore Ilan Berzon, a marketing communication major and the club’s treasurer. “It’s a great sport, a great group of people, and all in all a great thing to get involved with. We have a lot of people who simply love the idea, don’t want to play, but want to support us and have bought shirts. The interest level continues to blow me away.”
One of the league’s main goals this year is to emphasize its sporting and competitive facets rather than the magical ones, Peters said.
“We’re almost trying to dilute the Harry Potter aspect of the Quidditch team a little bit,” she said. “We want students to see it as more of a sport than fanatics running around on broomsticks.”
Indeed, playing Quidditch is much more physically demanding than most members anticipated, said Graziano.
“By nature people are going to take it seriously. I took it seriously,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to getting into Quidditch mode. For me, that’s a good Saturday: get up, get some breakfast, and play Quidditch.”
Intercollegiate Quidditch, based on the fantastical wizarding sport from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, has been gaining popularity across the nation since 2006, when Xander Manshel, who was then a freshman at Middlebury College in Vermont, started the country’s first collegiate Quidditch team.
The sport made its way to Emerson this past spring where it started as a small student group of fourth-floor Little Building residents run by sophomores Jared Kowalczyk, a film production major, and digital post-production major Kathryn Peters. As interest in the group grew, Kowalczyk and Peters approached the Athletic Department and requested funding and permission to make it an official club in the fall of 2008.
Every year, the Athletic Department funds three different school clubs, allotting $500 to each. The funding was given to the dance, hockey and Quidditch teams.
“With the group’s success last year, we decided to give the team a chance,” said Roger Crosley, Emerson’s coordinator of athletic operations. “We thought it would fit in perfectly at Emerson.”
Kowalczyk asked his research writing teacher Elizabeth Parfitt, a professor in the writing, literature and publishing department to be the Quidditch advisor. As advisor to the club, Parfitt is the go-to for extra funding if they should need it.
The team has also joined the Intercollegiate Quidditch Association, which includes more than 160 colleges and 30 high schools across the United States. The Emerson Quidditch Team will participate in this year’s Intercollegiate Quidditch World Cup Festival hosted by Middlebury College on Oct. 26.
For a few team members, this trip is one of the club’s main attractions.
“I’m really excited that we’ve become an organization and that so many people have expressed interest, but I’m especially excited to go to the World Cup,” said Jeff Kulig, a sophomore digital post-production major who participated in last year’s group as well.
The club’s “league team,” the team that will represent Emerson at the World Cup and other intercollegiate matches, will be comprised of 10, handpicked members.
The 10 will be chosen from the four or five teams currently playing at Emerson, said Kowalczyk. The team going to the World Cup will be picked through an open scrimmage on Boston Common. That match will allow captains to scout and recruit players. The date for the scrimmage has not yet been set.
Already 176 Emerson students have signed up for the club on student organizational fair, and newcomers are excited for what this year has to offer.
“I got here and I was like, Quidditch?” said freshman Drew Graziano, a media arts major. “I guarantee I’ll never get another opportunity to play in organized Quidditch. I couldn’t pass this up.”
Others are just as excited about the wizarding wear involved.
“I’m just stoked to wear cloaks and robes and use broomsticks,” said Carmen Chung, a freshman visual and media arts major, who is almost done knitting her scarlet and gold Gryffindor-inspired scarf.
For now, the team has ordered T-shirts. They will be on sale to students and faculty throughout the week of Oct. 13 outside of the Little Building dining hall for $15 each. Shirts are purple, with “Emerson College” and Quidditch’s signature three hoops printed on them in gold. So far, $600 has already been raised through advanced orders, but members are hoping to collect even more.
“We’re trying very hard to raise as much money as possible,” said sophomore Ilan Berzon, a marketing communication major and the club’s treasurer. “It’s a great sport, a great group of people, and all in all a great thing to get involved with. We have a lot of people who simply love the idea, don’t want to play, but want to support us and have bought shirts. The interest level continues to blow me away.”
One of the league’s main goals this year is to emphasize its sporting and competitive facets rather than the magical ones, Peters said.
“We’re almost trying to dilute the Harry Potter aspect of the Quidditch team a little bit,” she said. “We want students to see it as more of a sport than fanatics running around on broomsticks.”
Indeed, playing Quidditch is much more physically demanding than most members anticipated, said Graziano.
“By nature people are going to take it seriously. I took it seriously,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to getting into Quidditch mode. For me, that’s a good Saturday: get up, get some breakfast, and play Quidditch.”
Viewing Comments 1 - 4 of 4
Dawn Zuhlke
posted 4/20/09 @ 3:44 AM EST
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