By Khalida Sarwari
The most popular game among witches and wizards is gaining a following on the East Coast among university students.
Quidditch, which started as a fictional sport created by British author J. K. Rowling for the Harry Potter novels, is the new favorite sport at Northeastern University. Ryan Townzen, a 23-year-old from Campbell, played in the school’s first Quidditch tournament earlier this month.
The game is typically played on broomsticks and involves four balls: a quaffle, a snitch and bludgers. There are two teams of seven people consisting of chasers, beaters, a keeper and a seeker. The team whose seeker catches the snitch wins.
Not having read any of the books or seen the Harry Potter films, Townzen said he found the game “extremely confusing.” But he recognized many similarities to other sports he had played, among them rugby and flag football.
“There’s a lot of strategy involved in it because of all the positions involved,” he said, citing such athletic skills as agility, target throwing, catching and field vision as requirements.
The tournament took place on artificial turf indoors on the Northeastern University campus. The teams were divided between the Griffindorks, made up of university students from the Boston area who play flag football, and Muggles United, comprised of international students who play soccer.
The Griffindorks ultimately won the game and received an intramural championship T-shirt for a prize.
For the match, the players were allowed to use some equipment from other sports, such as goalie gloves for the keeper. The other players used broomball sticks, dodgeballs, volleyballs and hula hoops for goals.
“No team really practiced beforehand,” Townzen said. “It was everyone’s first time.”
For his part as the snitch, an impartial position, Townzen donned athletic attire with a bright gold jersey and a yellow flag belt that the seekers had to grab in order to capture him. Harry Potter fans might recognize the snitch as a golden flying ball.
As the graduate assistant of intramural sports, Townzen works in new sports development. So when other intramural staff members proposed the idea for a Quidditch tournament, Townzen helped organize and write the rules for the tournament.
“We decided we had extra time, so we got all the stuff and the rules, and that’s how I got invested in it,” he said. “We definitely would do it again.”
When he’s not putting together Quidditch tournaments, Townzen spends his time working toward his master’s degree in sports leadership. He moved to Campbell with his family in 1999, but left to attend the University of the Pacific in Stockton, where he received his undergraduate degree. He plans to continue in campus recreational sports professionally.
In high school at Archbishop Mitty, Townzen served as an umpire for the Campbell Little League. He credits the experience as one that started him down his current path.
“That was my first start as a sports official,” Townzen said. “It really propelled me into what I’m doing.”
Townzen is a snitch, but that’s a good thing in Quidditch tourney
