Time to Buy a Broomstick!

Many kids come into the Collegewise offices looking for schools with soccer or football teams. Sometimes they're even looking for a badminton team! But for an avid Harry Potter fan like myself (judge me all you want, but those books are going to be on the list of CLASSICS someday soon!), I'm crossing my fingers that one day I'm going to meet a high school student looking for a Quidditch team.

Yep, you read it right. Quidditch. As in Howgart's Inter-House Quidditch teams.

There's only one real difference between Harry Potter's sport and the newest sport on college campuses: gravity. But these kids aren't letting a little thing like gravity get in their way. Colleges all over the country are starting up Quidditch teams for their own campuses, joining the Intercollegiate Quidditch Association and training to compete in the Quidditch World Cup. Schools like the University of Washington, Middlebury, Vassar Chestnut Hill College and McGill University from Canada all competed in the 2008 World Cup. Boston University and Northeastern organized a "Battle Over Boston" and there are 105 teams associated with the IQA, recruiting and training for the next World Cup.

If you think you're the next Quidditch star, check out the IQA at www.collegequidditch.com. Or if you're like me and absolutely positive you're not the next Quidditch star, you can live vicariously by watching this clip of the Middlebury and Princeton teams competing on CBS Sports.

It's not quite the Sweet Sixteen, but it's still pretty awesome.