Elaine and Heidi Kermes are ready for a Big Ten faceoff, one where they drive an hour and commit to a Saturday.
On the metal bleachers overlooking a Conshohocken athletic field, Heidi wore corn and blue, cheering on the University of Michigan, her hometown team, while Elaine wore an embellished baseball hat. of the Penn State logo.
It was noon, and the intramural rivalry game wasn’t scheduled to start until 6:30 p.m. But the Lancaster couple was enjoying the other tournament games so much that they decided to make a day of watching them. well a sport that Heidi likes.
Which is not basketball, football, volleyball, or tennis.
They attend the US Quadball Cup, the annual championship tournament for a sport formerly known as US Quidditch.
“It’s like Harry Potter in real life,” said Heidi, attending her fifth cup and the closest to home (she drove from Lancaster to Kissimmee, Fla., a few years ago).
On Saturday and Sunday, the event took over the Proving Grounds, a large multi-sport complex in Conshohocken, attracting thousands of college athletes, parents, and area fans from as far away as California. and Texas. More than 60 teams competed.
The weekend marked the first time the cup was held in Pennsylvania, and the first time in more than a decade that it came to the Northeast.
It was also the first championship tournament since the game changed its name from quidditch to quadball, a move made in part to distance itself from Harry Potter author JK Rowling and her views about the transgender community.
‘It’s a combination of factors,’ said Jack McGovern, spokesman for US Quadball and a Haverford native, as he stood next to one of the 12 pitches on Saturday morning. Among them, however, so the game wants to distance itself from the “anti-trans positions advanced by JK Rowling.”
The name change is the culmination of at least a decade of conversation in the quadball community, one that prides itself on inclusivity. Teams are prohibited from having more than four people of the same gender on the field at one time. About 40% of quadball players identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, or nonbinary, according to the sport’s most recent membership census.
At a time when some lawmakers tried to restrict the rights of trans people, including banning their participation in women’s sports, quadball welcomed them with open arms.
» READ MORE: Photos of the US Quadball Cup 2023 tournament in Conshohocken
Sometimes, literally.
Wearing rainbows on his bright yellow jersey and socks, former player Richard Crumrine, 29, a Florida native who currently lives in Alaska, walked around blasting music from a portable speaker and carried a sign that read “Free Hugs.”
A passing player shouted “Can I get a hug?” Crumrine hugged him.
He called the quadball “a huge symbol of inclusivity,” and said his “Free Hugs” campaign is just one part of that.
“It’s hard for someone in a dark place to say ‘I need help,'” Crumrine said, but maybe a hug — offered with a colorful, hard-to-forget sign — can help a little. that way.
He and others in the quadball community said they support changing the sport’s name for similar reasons. Although it takes some getting used to.
Heidi Kermes, for one, said she decided not to wear a shirt from a previous tournament that said “quidditch.” Instead, he plans to buy a new quadball shirt on Saturday. Some fans walked around wearing shirts with Harry Potter references, such as “Platform 9¾” or “I’m only here for the Butterbeer.”
The name change sometimes confuses would-be players, said Paul Ruffolo, 22, a senior and team captain at Middlebury College, where the game is played.
He and his teammates had long supported the change because of Rowling’s comments, he said, but the new name sometimes made it difficult to sell the game to people quickly. Many people look confused when he mentions quadball, he added, so he always makes it clear that it’s the game formerly known as quidditch.
“I don’t know how to do it,” he said.
McGovern, the spokesman, acknowledged that the game could never completely remove itself from its association with Harry Potter, the series from which its rules are adapted. The players even hold a broom between their legs while running around the pitch.
Michael Rodriguez, who works to expand the game to youth in the Philadelphia area through his company, Levio Learning, teaches the game at wizarding camps and events, as well as his own academies. Often, children who are not active in sports are attracted to quadball because they have read Harry Potter.
“If the kids are reading Harry Potter, it’s a good supplement,” said Rodriguez, 28, who plays quadball for Drexel’s disbanded team and lives in Folsom. “Reading is great for kids. So is running around.”
There are currently no youth quadball leagues, although he hopes there will be one day, once more people are exposed to the sport.
Today’s players said they were drawn to quadball for a variety of reasons.
Rutgers captain Annika Kim, 20, of Palisades Park, NJ, said she fell in love with the sport when she saw a highlight reel on TikTok.
His friend James Kaari, 21, of Toms River, found a table for quadball at a club fair. It’s next to the table for volleyball, a sport they said they intended to sign up for until realizing it required experience they didn’t have.
McGovern, 24, said quadball leaders hope the name change will also attract more athletes.
“There are a lot of people who wouldn’t have given the game a chance” if it had been used by its former name, he said. He hoped they would consider it.