I would be doing you a disservice if I didn’t provide yet another account (although albeit more fair and balanced than many you may see) about the Quidditch phenomenon here at Midd.  I’d like to at least pretend that my perspective is different from most!

In the fall of 2006, my first year at Middlebury, a group of us got together on Sunday mornings to combat the ill-effects of a Saturday night by putting on rather haughty clothing and our best British accents as we competed in a rousing round of croquet.  Soon we began to brainstorm about other ways to ensure that we could drag ourselves out of bed before 11:00 and before long, under the leadership of Xander Manshel, we found ourselves with capes on our backs, brooms between our legs and running around Battell Beach chasing our hallmate cross country runner/wrestler Rainey Johnson dressed in yellow. 

All of it generated some buzz, albeit not all positive, but much of it merely dismissing the concept as something “freshmen” do.  Our first World Cup event was later that fall when as a member of the “Falmouth Falcons” our team captured the first trophy (made suggestively out of empty purchases from the liquor store) after a sensational snitch grab by the seeker turned commissioner, Alex Benepe.

The rest, as they say, is history.  This week’s past event included 14 different colleges as far flung as Lousiana State University, the University of Washington and even McGill.  Although I personally have tried to distance myself from the scene a little bit (merely out of respect that I am past my time), our suite agreed to host 11 LSU students for Saturday and Sunday nights.  I actually had no idea what to expect out of them, and probably shouldn’t have been surprised when I found them to be kind, fun-loving and endearing.  They themselves were blown away by Middlebury.  All they did was talk about the breathtaking colors, the quaintness of the town and how friendly everybody was.  Of course we were not without our cultural differences, the best of which was when they knocked on my door at 7:30 A.M. Sunday morning, dressed in their Sunday best, asking me where the nearest Catholic church was in town.  So to say the event wasn’t out of the ordinary certainly is a mischaracterization. 

And there is so much to say about it, because it truly does represent some of the best of Middlebury’s creative minds, organizational prowess and sheer sense of fun.  These things are easy enough to tell.  I guess what made me so happy about the event was the way in which I saw the community getting involved.

One of things that first troubled me about Middlebury was that before coming here I had been warned that at times the town-gown relations had been strained in the past.  Because of this, I love going to hockey games and seeing kids that I’ve met at Mary Hogan Elementary wearing the jersey of my really good friend who is the starting goalie, worshipping him like a professional.  I love going to events like Midd-mayhem, an all-campus picnic with rides, games and music, where on a beautiful spring day everybody is outside just enjoying each other’s company. 

That, I think, is what I find so awesome about the Quidditch World Cup.  I saw everyone from my adviser to Provost Tim Spears to the people who I see at Steve’s Park Diner every Friday morning.  It was an event that was about Middlebury, the town and not the college.  It’s easy to lose sight of where we are and for me at least it is such a wonderful thing to both be a part of and also share such a wonderful place with guests from all over the country. 

From something we did to wake ourselves up on Sunday mornings to a community-uniting event.  I suppose that if we look at it this way it’s not hard to appreciate a bunch of kids waddling around on brooms, chasing after a golden snitch, but also perhaps something even more significant to the rest of us. 

P.S.  Check out this video 7 Days Vermont did if you are interested in a more technical description of Quidditch! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kfoEf-R3qY&fmt=18