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Miami University is proud to announce the Phoenix Cup, being hosted on October 20-21, 2012. Details are still being developed, but keep an out here, on our Facebook page, or our Tumblr for more information! Signup dates will be announced within the coming weeks.

Exciting news from Miami! We are officially having Quidditch intramurals at Miami University! The rules will be amended a bit to fit the intramural atmosphere, but it will still be the same fun, awesome quidditch we know and love. Hope to see you all out there!

Hello fellow Quidkids! As the semesters wind down, the finals give way to sunshine, jam sessions in the car on the way to the beach, and fun and shenanigans for all, I’d like to take a look back on our year and how far we’ve come. In the beginning of the year, we were an odd bunch. A handful of people showed up to the first practice, where the execs just talked about a bunch of random stuff that seemed to have no correlation. Different levels of teams? Tryouts? A bunch of different dues for random stuff? No one had a clue what was going on. Quite frankly, I don’t think the kids already on the team did. But hey, we were growing. In the early days, we mainly just fooled around at practice, not being too serious. People came and went as they pleased, and it was basically all fun and games. We went to the Midwest Cup, and after the night’s stay in a super sketchy motel with bars on the windows, got crushed. We couldn’t withstand the powerhouses like QC Pitt (nice guys by the way, hit them up), and even the Red Owls, ISU’s B team proved to be too much. In our defense, we had a 9-man roster, so little in the way of subs. But outmanned, outgunned, and out strategized, we went home a rag-tag team of (not quite) champions (reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPVhmZodaLA) We gained a bit more focus after the Midwest Cup, and set our sights on New York and World Cup V. This was a dream come true for many of us: our nerdery had blossomed into taking a painstakingly long journey to NYC to take in the sights and more importantly, play quidditch. We had taken on the mascot of the Lionhawks, something of my own invention. Our school is the Redhawks, and I personally love lions, so the combination seemed to go well. Our fantastic artists Megan and Erin created a wonderful banner for us to fly, and we were proud. We had been working hard for a few weeks, and hopefully it would pay off. Our first match was against Rollins College, and like us, they too were a small team hoping to make some noise. It was a hard fought match, but in the end Keeper-Jesus (we really never found out his name) got the best of us and scored enough to put their snitch catch in winning position. It was a tough fought match, but we felt good because of it. Later we Outside Magazine Partially Icelandic John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidtty Werbermenjensen Quidditch Team. I’m pretty sure their actual name was longer, but this is what I can remember. The match was brutal to say the least. Personally, I have never gotten hurt too badly in practice, nor had anyone on our team. We all walked away from this game bloodied, bruised, and limping. Now, I’m not here to bad mouth other teams or referees; what’s done is done. We lost, though I will say the match wasn’t nearly fair or on par with Rulebook 5 as I’d like it to be. This game probably had the largest audience, and the world watched as Miami got spanked. We spent some time in the city after this, before coming back for our night game against Johns Hopkins. It was cold, kind of wet, and we were all tired, cranky, hungry(Somehow I managed to go 24 hours without getting myself food. I really don’t know what was stopping me) and hurting. Needless to say, it definitely wasn’t our best match. Johns Hopkins ran through us like a hot knife through butter, and truly exposed our weaknesses. However, it was different than the Icelandic whatchamacallits. Hopkins was brutal, to be sure, but they had class, style, and sportsmanship. It was our worst defeat since QC Pitt, but it was enjoyable to play against such a team. If anyone from Hopkins is reading this, you guys rock. We returned in the morning, ready to take on CAMPS (which I still don’t know what that stands for). However, even as we scoffed at the clearly older players of our opponents, we still managed to lose by a snitch grab. That was it; Miami university, 0-4, headed home. But not, of course before we caught Purdue’s last pool play game. We have built a good relationship with Purdue through Midwest and World Cups, and I must say they’re an awesome team. We were so happy for them to win the D2 cup. After returning to Oxford, not much happened on the Quidditch front. Our school doesn’t let us practice outside during the winter months, so we were done until after winter break. Meanwhile, the gears were turning. We decided to open it up for discussion: what type of team were we going to be? As put by our teammate Ryan, we were in a weird state: we wanted to win, we had the passion to put in a lot of work, but we certainly liked to screw around. The months we spent doing nothing but play around at practice certainly didn’t pay off. Something had to change. We needed to decide, were we going to be the happy go lucky team who everyone loved but sucked? Or were we going to be ruthless killing machines where other teams would groan when they had to play us? Couldn’t there be a best of both worlds? Yes, yes there was. And our team voted for it. We all agreed, we would get more serious, work on our fitness, and still be the super lovable team that puts a smile on all the quidkids faces because they knew we were Miami. We returned in the winter ready and determined, we were going to become awesome. We started reserving court times in one of our buildings and practicing. We began to work on tactics, specific skills, and game mentality. A little formless at first, but we got better. The team decided to name me as their unofficial coach until elections in the spring. So now I planned practices and we actually worked on what we needed to work on. The team was forming. All the while, we lost players to other activities and things. We started off the year with 9-10 new freshmen, and ended up with 4. But still, we persevered. Once the weather got nice, we started practicing in the quad. We got our picture on the front page of the student newspaper. Our players showed up to practice ready and willing to do what it takes to make themselves better at this sport we had come to love. We were a team, but more importantly, we were all becoming very good friends. The chemistry on the pitch was a million times better than it had been at the Midwest Cup all those months ago. We were a force to be reckoned with. Now, to prove ourselves. After a few practice matches fell through with Kentucky and The Charles School, we headed up to OSU for the 2nd Annual Ohio Cup. Due to a few mishaps, we ended up with some of our key players very late to our first match. Things were messed up, miscommunications were made, and we entered our match against Ball State (ranked #1 in the IQA at the time) very unprepared. It was a bloodbath. I myself was amongst those who arrived late, and while weren’t too late, the score was already topping 150-0. The match ended 260-10, a crushing blow to the start of our tournament. Did all of our hard work count for nothing? We regrouped and talked about the match. We rested, and waited for the next one against The Charles School. We properly warmed up this time around, went over our key play elements, and put our hands in. This match was going to be different. We were prepared. And prepared we were. 110-0, we came out full throttle and did fantastically. The communication was there, the mechanics were there, and most importantly, the teamwork was there. It was our first win of the entire season, and man, were we proud. We had a repeat game against the Jetpack Ninja Dinosaurs, who were ragtagging it with a bunch of random players from JND, OSU, and elsewhere. 40-10 we took the match, once again displaying our strengths. We were riding on a wind of confidence. Despite the rain and cold, our spirits couldn’t be dampened. The tournament could, however, and unfortunately we went home after pool play. BUT, that was not before we played our final match of the day against Eastern Michigan University. We had watched their matches, and man did these guys play rough. But we stuck to our guns, and kept the score low, 40-20 EMU before the snitch got back on the pitch. Each goal was fought for tooth and nail. Bludger control was unreal, and we left it all out on the pitch. Our seeker soon tired (she snitched multiple times as well), and we looked for a replacement. Everyone kind of mumbled and shuffled their feet as they looked around, seeing that our other usual seekers were in the game. Welp, this was a good a time as any, so I volunteered to go in as seeker. Not too long after I went in, the snitch was on me, trying to steal the broom from my legs, but I got the jump on him, and snatched the snitch. The feeling was surreal, to be sure. Not only because it was my first time ever playing as seeker, but what it meant for our team as a whole. EMU was a powerful force to us, but we didn’t back down at all. The win, our first true underdog win, was the sweetest of all. All I could think of was (in reference to the video above) “I AM A BEAUTIFUL ANIMAL! I AM A DESTROYER OF WORLDS! I AM HARRY FREAKING POTTER!“ But it wasn’t just I. It was we. We all did it together. Ending the Ohio Cup 3-1, the year was quiet after that, except of course for a few other practices, elections, and the HAWKs (High Achievements of Wizarding Kind). The results are as follows: Best Chaser - Matt D. Best Keeper - Brendan K. Best Beater - Jeremy F. Best Seeker - Katie E. G. Most Improved - Jessica D. MVP - Matt D. Best Save - Morgan J. Best Beat - Jeremy F. Best Goal - Matt D. Best Snitch Catch - Kate R. Luna Lovegood Most Quirktastic Award - Katie E. G. Dolores Umbridge Hazing Award - Katie E. G. (note: this is purely a joke, we don’t haze, nor do we condone hazing. It’s an inside joke with the team) The Protein Shakes, Falcon Eggs, and Rocks Award for Excellent Fitness - Kate R. and Brendan K. Snorlax Award for Snoozing - Katie E. G. Smells like Teen Spirit Award for Most Team Spirit - Megan D. The Cormac McLaggen Quidditch Poster Child Award - Aryn H. (she’s on the Quidditch Quarterly World Cup V rankings page!) Pigwidgeon Award for Most Loved Player - Katie E. G. It’s Just a Flesh Wound Award - Matt D. and Ryan B. Hermione Can’t Draw Award for Best Artist - Erin G. Cedric Diggory Award for Rugged Attractiveness - Aryn H. Helga Hufflepuff Award for Most Kindness - Megan D. Hermione Granger Insufferable Know-it-all Award - Katie G. The Ford Anglia Award for Best Wipe-out - Ryan B. The Neville/Luna Best Couple That Never Was - Katie G. and Ryan B. The Gringotts Award for Best Treasurer - Brendan K. “Sonorus” Award for quietest player - Michelle R. “That’s Lavender Brown! Racist sister!” Award for Diversity - Aryn H. Most Likely to Steal a Baby - Katie E. G. (Once again, a joke. We do not, nor do we condone stealing babies) Oliver Wood Best Team Leader - Matt D. Percy Weasley Most Likely to Complain About the Award They Received - Katie E. G. Coach’s Award - Kate R. As for important positions for the world to know, Kate R. is president, I am the coach, and we are co-captains. I’m sure my team will forgive me that I don’t remember all the positions. Well, that about sums it up for our year. I had the greatest time with all these players, and I can call each and every one of them my friends. I appreciate all they have done for me, each other, and the team. We are all incredibly excited for next year: new players, new opponents, andhosting our very own Phoenix Tournament! Look out world, the Miami University LionHawks are coming! Mischief Managed, Love and Honor, Matt