What’s better than reading about a high-speed broom chase for the snitch in your favorite Harry Potter book? Watching the sport being played by UNC Wilmington’s very own Quidditch team, the Wilmington Warhawks.

Little known to most as an actual sport, real life Quidditch is an interesting take on the beloved game that most Harry Potter fans hold close to their hearts.  

In the Harry Potter series, competitors fly, the quaffle is a red indented ball, the bludgers are essentially living dodgeballs and the snitch is a tiny golden orb with wings. For the competitive real life version, things are organized a bit differently.   

To start, players must hold their broomsticks between their legs for the duration of the game. The brooms are relatively small in size, are lightweight and can be customized. They are also required to consist of a wooden or plastic pole between 32 and 48 inches, according to the official US Quidditch rulebook.  

Balls used for gameplay are as follows: a volleyball for the quaffle, dodgeballs for the bludgers and a tennis ball for the snitch. Compared to the books, the snitch is slightly more complicated in real life. A runner dressed entirely in yellow with a Velcro tail attached to their shorts holds a tennis ball and acts as the difficult-to-catch object, which must be pulled off by the seeker to end the game.  

“We usually describe Quidditch as a mix between rugby and dodgeball, but it has similarities to almost any sport you can think of,” said Olivia LeMay, the Wilmington Warhawks‘ team president. “I personally think of it as almost three separate games happening on the same field that can sometimes interact with one another.”

Although the basics can be picked up fairly quickly, watching a practice or match makes it clear this is a complicated sport. The amount of running alone makes it physically challenging, with rules that often require players to run back and touch the goalposts in order to re-enter active gameplay.  

“I wish more people knew that Quidditch is not an easy game,” said LeMay. “You need to be good at catching, throwing and dodging in order to be an effective player. It is a full contact sport that allows one-armed tackles while having a plastic rod between your legs. I believe that if more people tried it out, they would see how difficult Quidditch is and hopefully take us a little more seriously.”  

Few people realize that Quidditch is not only a national sport, with teams from Duke, Carolina and NC State all competing within the state alongside UNCW, but also an international sport, with countries including Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and more participating. The International Quidditch Association (IQA) regulates the sport and is a registered nonprofit organization.  

“We play teams from all over North and South Carolina in our conference tournaments and teams from Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey in our regional tournaments,” said LeMay. “So far the farthest we’ve traveled is Virginia Beach for Regionals, but we hope to continue to travel farther and play teams we’ve never played before.” 

For those interested in trying out the physically challenging and complicated sport, practices are held on Mondays and Thursdays at 5:30 p.m. and on Sundays at 1:00 p.m. All practices are held on the gazebo fields near the Student Recreation Center. More information about the team can also be found on their Facebook page.