A nice day for a game of Quidditch
BURLINGTON, Jul 03, 2012 (Menafn - Skagit Valley Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --There was a bit of magic and a lot of laughter at Skagit River Park on Monday, as members of local group Youth Dynamics played their first game of Quidditch.
Featured in the popular book and movie series "Harry Potter," the fictitious game involves players zipping around on flying brooms, attempting to catch a small, winged Golden Snitch and throwing balls called Quaffles through golden hoops for points. Bewitched iron balls called Bludgers whiz around the field, trying to knock players off their brooms.
Held back by gravity and being nonwizarding folk, the middle-and high school-age Youth Dynamics players were using brooms from the Dollar Store, and even a purple feather duster, and running around the field.
Players attempted to throw a deflated volleyball through hula hoops held up with plastic piping, while others lobbed dodge balls at those players to keep them from scoring.
Group members were turned onto the idea during a Harry Potter movie night at the group's drop-in center, said Jonas Knudsen, the area director for the nondenominational outreach ministry and also the game's referee. They'd even studied the game by watching YouTube videos of collegiate Quidditch matches.
Quidditch became popular around the country at the height of the Harry Potter craze, with entire teams forming at high schools and colleges.
"We thought we'd just try it," Knudsen said.
The Snitch for this game's purpose was a chosen player with a tennis ball attached to his pants. Any player who could grab it would win the game for their team.
"That was intense," remarked one of the game's Snitches, Garrett Swanson, after trying to evade the players clutching brooms between their knees and running after him.
After the first couple of matches, the players threw down their brooms -- and feather duster -- and collapsed in exhaustion. Then they were up again, ready to sweep up the competition -- and laughed so hard they could hardly snag the Snitch.
"The biggest thing is we just want to have fun," Knudsen said.
Erinn Unger can be reached at 360-416-2141 or at eunger@ skagitpublishing.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ schools_svh.
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