by Leah Twilley
video by Jeremy Knickerbocker
 

Players on Grand Valley’s Quidditch team — the Grand Valley Grindylows — aren’t wizards or witches, but they did make it to the U.S. Quidditch World Cup, twice. And they did it without magic.

The real-life club sport, an adaptation of the fictional sport created by J.K. Rowling in her “Harry Potter” series, competes with colleges and universities across the country. Think rugby and dodgeball, then add brooms that players must keep between their legs at all times, and you’ve got Quidditch.

A match includes seven players: three chasers, two beaters, a keeper and a seeker. The goal is to earn points by throwing two types of balls through three hoops; a match ends when the snitch is captured.

Grand Valley’s 35-member team hosted the Midwest Regional Championship on the Allendale Campus in November, which included more than 30 teams and 600 players. For the second year in a row, they won a bid to the U.S. Quidditch World Cup and will compete in South Carolina in April.