The Baylor Quidditch team has excelled this season with recently placing second at Regionals and receiving a bid to compete at the World Cup on April 15, in Rockhill, South Carolina. To date, they have had many notable games, such as wins over tough teams like the University of Texas, Louisiana State University and Sam Houston Sate University.

Inspired by the Harry Potter series written by J.K. Rowling, the sport of Quidditch has been adapted into a game even ordinary individuals can play. This once imaginary game has come to life and has created a very real community at Baylor.

After spending hours each week at practices, weekends together at tournaments and team bonding events in spare time, Baylor Quidditch member Steffi Hoffman has found a second family with her teammates. She said, “they are the best people you’ll ever meet and it’s a privilege to say that I’m part of this group.”

Hoffman went on to explain that she initially got involved with this team as she walked by practice one day and decided to introduce herself. “Everything just fell into place from there,” she said. Even now, the team members on Baylor’s Quidditch team encourage others to jump in and try it out so they can experience the amazing community for themselves.

Jordan Strack, another member of Baylor’s team, said her favorite aspect of being part of a community like this was being able to play as part of a close knit team, which “is something I’ve never experienced before.”

Just like in the Harry Potter series, the real-life game of Quidditch contains brooms, bludgers, quarrels and a snitch. However, the brooms are typically made of PVC pipes, bludgers are dodge balls, quarrels are slightly deflated volleyballs and the snitch is a person. While it may seem like all fun and games, this sport is very serious as it contains full contact tackling (with of course no pads), dodging balls and goals and goalies to keep real score.

There are four different positions on each team: the Beaters, who throw the bludgers at the opposing team to knock them temporarily out of the game; the Chasers, who try to score on the opposing team; the Keeper, who guards their own team’s goal; and the Seeker, who chases the snitch in efforts to win the game.

Like moving parts of a machine, each team member must work closely with one another in order to properly execute the intricacies of this sport. The many successes of the Baylor Quidditch team would not have been possible if it wasn’t for the community atmosphere created amongst the team members.

True community has become harder to find, but here at Baylor, and especially on the Quidditch team, the community is authentic. Similarly to the Harry Potter series this sport contains magic, except instead of flying brooms the magic resides within the true friendships formed on this team.

“I’ve met my very best friends here, and it’s hard to imagine life without them now” Hoffman said.