By: Tyler Brady, Vanguard Staff Writer

Quidditch used to be off-limits to non-wizards, but thanks to some muggles, this high-flying sport has the potential to be an RSO.

This game involving broomsticks, snitches and bludgers has been brought to reality in student organizations across college campuses.

However, Kim Brandimore, director of Student Life, said there is no registered organization at SVSU that was started from the Harry Potter series.

Brandimore said that she’s heard of other campuses across the nation that have a Quidditch organization, including Harvard University.

Founded last year, the Intercollegiate Quidditch Association (IQA) has chapters at ten Michigan universities that includes Grand Valley State University, the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University.

If an RSO like this began at SVSU, it wouldn’t be the first organization to take inspiration from a book.

“One student organization was started at SVSU inspired by the book ‘Three Cups of Tea,’” Brandimore said.

The organization was a community service organization that raised funds to help create schools for women’s education in the Middle East.

As to the possibility of a Quidditch club starting at SVSU, Brandimore said, that it would be “phenomenal” to see this RSO.

“We love to see RSOs that are unique and do things that haven’t been done before,” she said.

According to the IQA, the first muggle-run Quidditch game began in fall of 2005 at Middlebury College in Vermont, eight years after the first Harry Potter book’s release.

Teams recreate this sport by riding broomsticks placed between their legs and running around a field.

Each team has between seven and 21 players. Players are divided into chasers, keepers, beaters and seekers and are identified by wearing different-colored headbands.

Three players, called “chasers,” attempt to make goals, worth ten points each, using a volleyball known as a quaffle.

To defend against the chasers, each team has a keeper to guard the goal hoops.

The teams each have beaters who throw or kick dodge balls called bludgers at opponents to try to remove them from the game temporarily.

To end the game, each team has a seeker who must capture the snitch. But unlike the magical form of Quidditch, the Muggle form uses a human as a “snitch runner” who carries a tennis ball inside a yellow sock that is placed in the runner’s waistband.

When the snitch is caught, the team whose seeker catches it earns 30 points, and the team with the most points is declared the winner.

Teams from Michigan universities will compete in a regional event for the Midwest Cup Oct. 8-9. IQA expects 20 teams to arrive on Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. and Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. to compete.