As one of UMass Lowell’s newest club sports, the Quidditch team has been radically improving on both a local and national level. Starting with just 12 players, the team has grown to almost 20 in just nearly two years, with hopes to continue growing next semester. The Quidditch team is currently co-ed and enforce the gender rule, which allows students to play as the gender they identify by.

Although based off the Harry Potter books, Quidditch is an extremely complex, full-contact sport that requires extreme agility. It consists of seven people per team with a neutral player (the snitch). Because the snitch is neutral it “..is allowed to do whatever they want to you but you can’t do anthing to [it]” according to Treasurer Sabrina Silva. Eli Spicer, the snitch for the team, assured this statement.

Each player’s role incorporates aspects of another sport: beaters use dodgeballs, chasers use basketball tactics to score points, and the seeker chases the snitch in a flag football-like manor. All these roles are imperative to the team scoring by either getting the ball through a hoop or catching the snitch, who is usually a faster player that runs around the field. Team member and founder of the UMass Lowell Quidditch team Katie Muise said “We definitely take it seriously. It’s not the ‘nerds running on brooms’ kind of thing.” Although, for every Harry Potter lover, there is definitely a little nerdiness to it.

With growing intensity during practices and in the program as a whole, the team is hopeful to compete in regionals next year. “We’re number one in our league right now” said Muise. Two players from the UMass Lowell team also play for a national team for US Quidditch (USQ) and in fact made it to the Quidditch World Cup and won.

Although not quite the same as Harry Potter, Quidditch has evolved from a fictional sport to an extremely high intensity and full-contact one. UMass Lowell’s Quidditch Team is growing steadily since 2014 and will continue to grow in the future. They currently practice three times a week as a club sport and play approximately seven games and two tournaments per semester, far more than several other clubs. UMass Lowell’s Quidditch team just ended for their spring semester, but are very eager for the next year to come.