UTD Muggles ready their brooms

Football might be far off into the distance for UTD hopefuls, but for others a sport involving broomsticks and an assortment of oddly named objects has already arrived.

For the uninitiated, Quidditch is a fictional sport taken from J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” book series. In the fictional sport, two teams of seven players fly in the air on mounted broomsticks as they interact in various ways dependant on their player classification.

But as the popularity of the books increased, Muggle Quidditch — with flying necessarily replaced with running — leagues emerged at dozens of universities. UTD students have played this kind of Quidditch on campus since fall 2008 and players look forward to resuming play this spring.

“As with all good things it started with Persian food, I’m not joking,” said biochemistry junior Sana Zekri.

Zekri and his friend Neeraj Bhat, a junior majoring in biology and business, were eating with friends when someone pulled up a YouTube video of Muggle Quidditch on their iPhone.

“At that point we all got really excited at the thought and the idea that we could do that ourselves,” Zekri said. “That very night, we started doing really intensive planning.”

Even without the ability to fly, Muggle Quidditch functions quite similarly to its magical counterpart.

Every player must have a broom between their legs with one hand on the broomstick at all times, Zekri said. Any type of broom is permitted, but Zekri recommends a wooden one for the best performance. Wooden brooms have better balance, durability and grip, Zekri said.

Zekri, who has read every “Harry Potter” book, said Rowling’s fictional characters have it easy. Running on a field with a broom between one’s legs is a lot more taxing than flying in the air. Zekri isn’t complaining, though — he usually plays as the Snitch.

“The Snitch is the person who dresses up in yellow and runs around,” Bhat said. “If the game is hardcore enough, he runs around the entire campus and the seekers from each team have to chase him down.”

Zekri, a cross country runner, said he likes the freedom of belonging to neither team. The Snitch is the only player not required to have a broom.

“Also, I look really good in yellow tights,” Zekri said as he struck a pose.

In order to catch the Snitch and end the game, the Seekers must steal a tennis ball found hanging from the Snitch’s waist.

Other players have received modifications as well.

“In the classic game, the one that’s from Harry Potter, the Bludgers are something you can hit with a stick,” Zekri said. “In this game, it’s very different because the Bludgers don’t have their own minds and all that stuff. So instead, the Bludgers are kick balls that either team can possess.”

The group hasn’t met to play for in months because of the cold, but they expect matches to resume near the beginning of March, Bhat said.

Previously, the group had gathered consistently every Friday or Saturday and played with whoever showed up. Zekri and Bhat welcome anyone to join them. In the future, they’d like to make the sport more official on campus.

“We started a club at one point,” Zekri said. “We had a 60-70 member Facebook group and then two people showed up.”

But Zekri hasn’t given up. As a Peer Advisor (PA), Zekri is working to make Quidditch a sponsored PA program.

“This is college, this is where you do cool stuff, you know? How often are you going to come up on a group that does this kind of thing,” Zekri said. “This is an interesting and fun thing that we can get away with, and it’s a good form of exercise.”

Quidditch rules at a glance

Each team of seven consists of three Chasers, two Beaters, one Seeker and one Keeper.

The Chaser’s role is to score as many points as possible by throwing a ball known as the Quaffle through any of the three hoops on the opposing team’s side of the field before the game ends.

The game concludes when the Seeker locates and gains possession of a small winged ball, the Snitch, which flies aimlessly through the sky.

The Keeper’s position is similar to a soccer goalie, preventing the Chasers from passing the Quaffle through the hoops. In Rowling’s novels, balls known as Bludgers have minds of their own, attacking the players at every opportunity. The Beaters are therefore invaluable as they use sticks to smack the Bludgers out of harm’s way.

In Muggle Quidditch players compensate for their inability to fly by keeping brooms and running on foot. The Snitch is replaced with an actual human, adorned in all yellow.

The Snitch is caught when a Seeker snatches a tennis ball swinging from the Snitch’s waist. The Bludgers are switched with kick balls thrown by the Beaters at the Chasers.

When a Beater hits a Chaser with the kickball, the Chaser must drop the Quaffle, symbolized by a volleyball in Muggle Quidditch.