Sophomore Chloe Rockow is the president of Duke Quidditch, a club that brings the magical sport from J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series in the real world and on Duke’s Gothic campus. The team, which was officially recognized by Duke Student Government in the Spring, played its first match of the year against North Carolina State University Sunday. Although the team lost the match, Duke Quidditch has lofty goals for the year and for its burgeoning membership. The Chronicle’s Sarah Zuk sat down with Rockow to discuss Quidditch in the “muggle world” and the team’s plans for the future.
The Chronicle: How did the game go against N.C. State?
Chloe Rockow: The final scores of the games were like 180 to 60 and 170 to 70, which is kind of embarrassing, but we caught the Snitch!
TC: So how do you adapt Quidditch to the real world?
CR: There is an International Quidditch Association—they have a very intense rule book.... There is a World Cup every year. It’s way more involved than I thought it would be when we got involved.
TC: How did you get involved in Quidditch?
CR: [Junior] Mia Lehrer, our vice president started it as a freshman [in 2008-2009]. Then I came and told her I’d help her out. This year we went out to the Student Activities Fair and had over 250 people sign up. We started having practices and over 80 people showed up.
TC: So what is Quidditch like?
CR: It’s a mix between soccer and dodgeball, with a football [and] rugby element. It’s a lot more physical than I thought it would be. A guy from N.C. State broke his rib! The snitch has to be fast. It’s usually a cross country runner. We can’t fly, which is depressing, but we have brooms. It is a heavy contact sport, so there’s tackling. You can only tackle people of your same position. Beaters use dodgeballs to tag people out.... We have a competition team, and then we have Houses, and then we have our listerv, [which is] our general membership. For people who come out and actually play at our practices, you’ll get sorted into a House. People who are really dedicated and can devote more time are on the competition team. So anybody who wants to be on anything can be, it’s just how much time you put into it.
TC: How many local schools have Quidditch teams?
CR: We are a member of the Intercollegiate Quidditch Association of the Carolinas, which has about 15 schools involved.
TC: How do you plan to grow the Quidditch team at Duke? What are your long-term goals?
CR: We are planning a Carolina Cup, so we are going to host at Duke all the schools from North and South Carolina for one day and just have a round robin tournament to determine the winner of the Carolinas. Mia [the team’s vice president] is Oliver Wood and she wants to go to the World Cup before her senior year. Since next year is her senior year, our goal is to get to the World Cup.
TC: What do you win at a Quidditch match?
CR: We actually had a little trophy for the [N.C. State] game. We have an artistic director [sophomore Rebecca Kuzemchak], and she is fantastic. She designed our trophy for this [the N.C. State] game. It was a little Dumbledore figure and on the back of his cape it said ‘Pack-Devils Dual 2010’ and the date. She’s going to make little trophies for each of the games and at the Carolina Cup we will have an official trophy.
TC: Which Hogwarts House would you be in and why?
CR: I feel like if I was actually at Hogwarts I would be in Ravenclaw. I’m one of those major overachievers, super organized, and I feel like that’s very Ravenclaw, kind of witty and very organized. But everyone wants to be in Gryffindor.
TC: Who is your favorite Harry Potter character?
CR: I’m going as Luna Lovegood to [the new Harry Potter movie]. Well, I kind of look like her, obviously. She is so quirky and funny—she could be my favorite character.
TC: What other aspects of your life does J.K. Rowling significantly impact?
CR: She went through so much hardship. Thinking about how she overcame so much adversity and did what she wanted to do with her life. She writes books, [and] I want to write books but that’s hard for me to admit because it’s not a profitable or practical thing to do.... I think it’s great she followed her dreams and did what she wanted to do, and that’s inspirational to me.
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