Quidditch matches come to Triangle

Cardinal Gibbons students take page out of Harry Potter

RALEIGH -- The first official Quidditch matches at Cardinal Gibbons High School lacked the magical pageantry of the sport -- at least as described in the Harry Potter series.

No packed stadium full of would-be wizards and witches. For that matter, no broomsticks flying at dizzying heights or tiny golden winged ball eluding capture -- the essentials of the game.

As Sean Magee and Ian Luther, the guys who brought Quidditch to the Catholic high school in West Raleigh, rattled off the rules (no hitting or violence, among them), a few members of the Wimbourne Wasps grumbled: "Let's just play."

And they did. Soon, a large box in the center of the field -- the front lawn of the high school -- opened to reveal a student, dressed in bright yellow, darting away with the "Snitch," the winged golden ball in the book that ends the game once it's caught. On the field, the players ran around with brooms between their legs, hitting their opponents with balls or trying to score by throwing another ball through golden hoops.

"I've got to say this is pretty much the most awesome thing ever," said Eric Steele, a 17-year-old junior, as play began on a recent chilly afternoon.

British author J.K. Rowling closed the bestselling Harry Potter series last year with the seventh book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."

But fans have found other ways to celebrate life after the end. They await "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," which will be released in theaters this summer. Wizard Rock shows can draw hundreds for music about all things Potter. And they play Quidditch for Muggles (as those without magical powers are called in the series).

Quidditch commissioner

The sport, especially popular on college campuses where many students grew up on the books, even has its own intercollegiate Quidditch commissioner and official rule book.

"My initial reaction was that it would not work and it would be stupid," said the commissioner, Alex Benepe. Benepe is a senior at Middlebury College in Vermont, where Quidditch for the Not-At-All Magical was created a few years ago.

"Our whole hall went out to give it a try and it was really fun," Benepe said. "It was awesome. I think it was pretty much, on the first day, a big hit. It just kept growing from that first day."

Benepe knows of about 170 teams across the country. He gets one or two questions a day, he said. Middlebury recently hosted and won the World Cup.

In North Carolina, students at Duke started a team this year. Malia Lehrer, the captain, said she's heard of interest at UNC-Chapel Hill and the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics in Durham. About 30 members are on the Duke team's Facebook page, though about seven typically show up to play, she said.

"It looked like a fun game and I wanted to do something to impact the campus somehow," said Lehrer, a freshman from Wilmington who enjoys the Potter books, but isn't the biggest fan. "I mean, people need a study break, and they need a good study break. And Quidditch is that."

Cardinal Gibbons students Magee and Luther saw a video of the game last summer and decided to give it a try.

The friends, both juniors, started working on it soon after school began this fall. The two received $100 from the school for supplies. Most of the money was used to build the goals -- three hoops at varying heights at each end of the field -- out of Hula Hoops and PVC pipe.

Big turnout

They expected 30 or 40 people would be interested. About 70 eventually signed up to play, fielding six teams that all take the names of teams in the series. They include Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin and Hufflepuff, the teams at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the school that Harry Potter and his friends attended.

"I heard it was happening and I wanted in," said Tom Bousquet, a 14-year-old freshman who played for Ravenclaw and donned his blue middle school graduation robe for the occasion. "It's a lot of fun. They don't take it seriously, but it's not all messing around."

The game is physical even without enchanted balls and other magic. Players, depending on their position, must keep brooms between their legs while they throw a ball called "The Quaffle" to the goals or take out opponents with other balls called "Bludgers."

They discovered one problem never explored in the book: sore wrists as they tried to hang on to their brooms during play.

Luther and Magee hope that soon other high schools in the area will start up their own Quidditch teams for some inter-high-school play.

For now, Cardinal Gibbons will just be honing their own skills, Luther and Magee said.

"It's going to get tighter," Magee said as play ended. "It's going to get better."