MIZZOUQUIDDITCH
From the Page to the Field ...
On Saturday Oct. 27, 2013, the University of Missouri quidditch team gathered in Rockford, Ill. for the Midwest Regional Championship. This was its last tournament of the season.
With an overall record of 6-7 and a ranking just below the top 30 position, the team knew this tournament was its last chance to advance to the World Cup.
As the team’s final game of the tournament came to a close, Mizzou was down by 20 points against the University of Kansas B-team. At this point, the snitch entered the field. The snitch is a key player who only comes in toward the end of the game. It is worth 30 points if caught.
More than a game
“I’m not a big sports person,” junior secretary Mackenzie Scott said. “However, at our last tournament (of the season), I legitimately got angry during a game and was really excited when we grabbed the snitch and qualified for World Cup. It’s really cool I’ve never been that excited about sports before.”
For the first time, in the teams three years of being recognized as a club sport on the Mizzou campus, the team had qualified for the World Cup.
The World Cup is the championship tournament of the International Quidditch Association. There are over 300 high school and collegiate teams all over the world that are a part of the International Quidditch Association.
During the months of October and November, teams from different regions face off to determine the top 100 teams in the league that will advance to the World Cup in April.
Although the sport itself is very physical and often compared to rugby, the team believes that it is not its physical strength that has helped it on the journey to the championships. Rather, the team believes the bond it has built is what has led to its success.
“We hang out more outside of practice than we do at practice,” sophomore captain Brett Smith said. “We’re definitely more friends than anything else. These are the people that I’m going to keep in touch with after college.”
Currently, the team practices three times a week on Stankowski Field on the Mizzou campus as well as inside the Mizzou Recreational Center.
Twice a week the team’s practices focus strictly on running plays and conditioning. Once a week the team plays a game of flag football or ultimate Frisbee. It does this in order to take the pressure off of the tough practices and maintain a close bond.
“Technically, it’s off season,” junior team member Alyson Bean said. “We’re really focusing on conditioning now because that’s what we feel is necessary to perform better going into next season and World Cup.”
The advancement to World Cup came as a huge surprise to quidditch team president Josh Ebbesmeyer not because of the last second snitch grab, which he claimed for the team, but because that was not his focus for the team. This year, Ebbesmeyer wanted to build the team with people who would stay throughout their time at Mizzou. He also wanted to create a connection between the players that would stick both on and off the field.
“The past two years have been rebuilding years, but the sense of family is what’s important,” Ebbesmeyer said. “When we have practices we make sure to let everyone say what they want. It’s controlled, but free. It’s not just coming to practice; it’s coming together as friends.”
While the team is focusing on its performance at World Cup, Smith is also looking ahead to next season and beyond.
“We qualified for World Cup because we came back a lot stronger this year,” Smith said. “We are still a young team, we’ve got a lot of new blood and they are all really energetic and really want to go out there to play and compete.”
The seventh annual World Cup will be held in North Myrtle Beach, S.C. on April 5-6, 2014.
"It's not just coming to practice; it's coming together as friends."
- Josh Ebbesmeyer