There May Not Be Flying, But Quidditch Still Creates Magic
When Colby Palmer started his freshman year at Virginia Commonwealth University, some students approached him in his dorm and asked whether he wanted to play quidditch.
Palmer had read all of the Harry Potter books and knew about the sport but said he felt reluctant to try it out.
"My impressions of quidditch was just that it's for nerds by nerds — that they wouldn't be like people who I would find things in common with," Palmer says.
Despite his hesitations, Palmer did give it a try and found he loved it and the community. Now, he's heading into his senior year at VCU and is spending the summer playing for the Washington Admirals, one of 16 Major League Quidditch teams. The season starts this weekend.
Maybe you've never heard of quidditch. And you might have missed the images of actor Daniel Radcliffe as the boy wizard Harry Potter plunging toward the ground on a flying broomstick in the screen adaptation of J.K. Rowling's series. If that is the case, you have a lot to learn. But then again, so does everyone who comes to the sport.
"There's such a dichotomy within the community because there are people who got into it because of Harry Potter and became athletic through friendship and playing, and then there are people like me who are looking for something to really stay in shape," Palmer says.
