Ball State may not have the best football, basketball or baseball teams. In fact, all those teams fall somewhere in the middle of the pack. But Ball State does have one team at the top of the leader board: the quidditch team.
The Ball State Quidditch League is currently ranked No. 1 out of 66 official member teams in the International Quidditch Association. Straddling broomsticks and replicating the game made famous by Harry Potter, the team has been designated as the best defense in the association.
"It's pretty awesome," Tyler Macy, president of the Ball State Quidditch League, said. "It's the first time we've been ranked even in the top 10, so to go to No. 1 is pretty amazing."
There are fewer teams playing quidditch than traditional college sports and fewer games in a season, but the dedication from the players and the drive to win is no less intense.
Erin Kelly, a sophomore Japanese and psychology major, plays chaser for the team. She said becoming No. 1 took a lot of hard work and, like any other sport, required commitment from the players. The team practices four days a week, including one day of conditioning. Kelly said while fun is an important part of the game, staying focused during practices helps give them a competitive edge.
"We put just as much hard work into it as any other sport," Kelly said. "We're going to put all our effort into it because it's something we love to do."
Macy said the next step for the team is to keep practicing hard to defend their first place position. That means keeping recruitment up and possibly a trip to next year's World Cup.
Quidditch began in 2005 at a college in Vermont and has been growing ever since. According to the IQA's website, there are more than 600 teams in the United States alone.
Hannah Lindgren, a junior telecommunications major, started the Ball State quidditch team as a freshman in 2009. She is now working with the IQA to organize the next Quidditch World Cup. She said the sport is growing in popularity and gaining respect from the athletic community. People may laugh when they first hear about quidditch, but when they see a match, the full-contact tackles and how physically demanding it is, Lindgren said, they're hooked.
Lindgren said she just hopes the spirit of the game isn't lost in the competition.
"Compared to football and soccer that's all about the sport, quidditch is all about the community," she said.
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