May 18, 2013
News 12 First at Five / Friday, July 13, 2012
AUGUSTA, Ga.-- You may recognize it from the movies. It involves brooms, but not the kind you use to clean your house. Quidditch, the popular, fast-paced sport from the Harry Potter novels is flying into Augusta. Next year around 20 teams from across the Southeast will compete in the Southern Regional Quidditch Championships. If you've read the books, you already know how to play. Well, for the most part.
Carly Kobasiar is Marketing Manager of the Augusta Sports Council, and she's excited to bring something different to the city.
"It's a sport that's kind of a little bit like water polo on a broom. Obviously it's had to be adapted for play on a field, on the ground because we all know people can't actually fly," she jokes.
The seven players on both teams have to hold a broom between their legs at all times. The players score by throwing rubber balls through hoops.The game ends when one team captures the snitch (a tennis ball inside a yellow sock).
"It's very similar to what you read about in the Harry Potter novels," admits Kobasiar. The tournament is not all fun and games, however. It's expected to bring quite a crowd. "Aside from just the fun community aspect of it, it's a great way to bring visitors to our area. We're expecting about 20 teams, so it should be somewhere in the neighborhood of about $80,000 in visitor spending," she explains.
While Augusta doesn't have a local team, you can still come out and support the players. In fact, you don't even have to be a Harry Potter fan. "Even if you have no idea what you're watching, you might get a kick out of it and enjoy being out there," assures Kobasiar.
Human, or "muggle," Quidditch is one of the country's fastest growing sports. There's even some talk that it could end up in the Olympics.The Augusta tournament hasn't set an official date yet, but it will probably take place around February or March of next year.
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