The Quadball team is known on campus for their practices on the Holloway lawn, visible from Camden Avenue. Image courtesy of Kayla Daly
SU Quidditch has been known around campus for its unique sport for over a decade. This year, they have officially changed their name to SU Quadball for multiple reasons.
Quadball President Alexandra Lipinski said they changed the name to move away from the association of J.K Rowling and for copyright reasons. Over the years, quadball has developed many different rules from the original game based on the Harry Potter series.
Although quadball originated from quidditch there are many differences, such as players wearing jerseys instead of capes and the use of PVC pipes instead of broomsticks.
“Both our team and the national organization as a whole has been making much more of a shift towards quadball as a sport other than just a Harry Potter fan club, which a lot of people think of us as.” Lipinski said.
In quadball there are six players on each team for the first 20 minutes of the game, with each team having four chasers and two beaters.
The chasers are the offensive players that are trying to score in one of the rings, worth 10 points each. The beaters are the defensive players that try and hit the opposite team players with the ball to knock them out. The chaser uses one slightly deflated volleyball and beaters get three dodgeballs.
After the time is up the snitch is added, which is usually a player from neither team to eliminates bias. At this point one of the chasers is replaced by a seeker, whose only goal is to get the snitch and award their team 30 points to end the game.
SU Quadball is now a part of the US Quadball conference. US Quadball was previously known as US Quidditch, a nonprofit organization that presides over the sport in the US.
The name change at Salisbury follows the national league rebrand. Image courtesy of www.usquadball.com
Through SU Quadball being a part of the US Quadball conference, they get able to play teams from all over the country. On Oct. 22, SU Quadball traveled to Penn State for a tournament with Pitt University, Virginia Tech University, James Madison University and University of Virginia.
The Quadball Team at Salisbury University practices on the lawn of historic Holloway Hall, which was the first building on campus. Image courtesy of Kayla Daly
SU graduate student Diego Rojas has been on the team since 2018. He is very proud to be a part of a community like SU Quadball.
“Most of my friends that I have had throughout colleges have been directly on the team or people I’ve meet through the team,” Rojas said. “It’s been a vital part for my social life here and just enjoying Salisbury.”
SU junior Kat Sylvain enjoys playing quadball to meet new people post covid and socialize.
“I think that quadball has made me a better person,” Sylvain said. “Quadball has also helped my mental health get better.”
By Kayla Daly
Staff Writer
Featured images courtesy of Kayla Daly