The quixotic questions of Quidditch
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Toolbox
By GORDON DRITSCHILO
STAFF WRITER - Published: July 12, 2009
MIDDLEBURY - Two sets of serious-looking college students, clad in capes and goggles, standing astride broomsticks, scramble about in the mud, hurling balls at one another.
It may sound like some fraternity hazing ritual, captured on a bystander's cell phone camera and posted to the Web. In reality, the video (mtv.com/videos/movies/ 403904/how-much-do-you-love-quidditch.jhtml) shows the Quidditch teams from Middlebury and Emerson colleges in an ad for the upcoming "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."
As played by characters in the Harry Potter books and novels, Quidditch is probably best described as a form of polo with flying brooms replacing horses, along with a couple other magical twists.
In 2005, Middlebury students adapted it into a form playable in the real world, a hybrid of rugby, dodgeball and capture the flag that, strange though it sounds, works. The game caught on quickly at Middlebury, and students evangelized it to other colleges during a tour in spring 2008.
More than a dozen teams, some from as far away as Louisiana and Washington State, converged on Middlebury last year for the Quidditch World Cup. Quidditch is an intramural sport in the fall, with the most dedicated players then competing against other schools.
"We sort of have a relationship with MTV because we've done a few things with them in the past," said Alex Benepe, who co-founded the Middlebury team with friend Xander Manshel. "They filmed some of our games during the spring trip in '08 and came to the World Cup last fall."
Benepe, who graduated from Middlebury this year, and is interning at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, said MTV approached him in January with some ideas about doing a promotion for the movie.
"For a while, it fell by the wayside, probably because of the economy," he said. "In the first week of June, they called me out of the blue."
MTV came up with the idea and developed the script with the help of the Quidditchers. The two-minute ad shows a player from Emerson pretending to listen to a gossiping classmate while daydreaming of a muddy Quidditch match.
The players from the two schools - Middlebury clad in maroon, Emerson in dark green - filmed from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at McCarren Park in Brooklyn.
"We ended up playing one real game which they filmed," Benepe said. "Most of the day was spent doing choreographed shots. ... We promoted the event a lot on Facebook. MTV promoted it, as well. Even though it was pouring rain, we got about 100 spectators."
The clip was filmed on a Saturday and aired the following Wednesday during the premiere of the new season of "The Real World."
"It was unreal," Middlebury player Kate Olen said of seeing herself on MTV. "MTV is kind of the network for adolescents. I've always watched it. I was proud of the fact that I was on MTV for Quidditch and not something else."
Olen, a junior from St. Helena, Calif., said she has played since her freshman year, and that Middlebury's representatives regularly tell prospective students about the team. She was part of the team that won last year's World Cup and a member of the triumvirate of commissioners taking over from Benepe.
"I am a little nervous, a little apprehensive about being the leader," she said. "Alex has taken this idea him and Xander had and made it into this wonderful and magical thing. Starting over with the next generation is nerve-wracking but exciting."
Benepe said he still is active with the league, working to facilitate inter-team communication and maintaining the Web site, collegequidditch.com. He said as he prepared to send out invitations to the 2009 World Cup last week, he had 160 teams to send them to.
"Some have been going for a couple years and are established clubs with a budget," he said. "Some are just getting started. I'll leave it to the kids at Middlebury to decide how many they want to cap it off at."
Middlebury is the reigning champion, but Benepe said Vassar and Emerson have given the Panthers runs for their money.
"Middlebury has the most experience and that's been an edge so far, but there are a lot of teams with students who are really into the game," he said.
Olen, one such student, grew up reading Harry Potter.
"I feel kind of like a dork telling you this, but I'm rereading the sixth book right now and I'll be buying my midnight premiere tickets soon," she said. "I may put on a lightning bolt."
"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" premieres in U.S. theaters July 15.
gordon.dritschilo@rutlandherald.com