Sports

The Golden Hippogriffs to host all-day tournament Saturday

Twelve teams of seven players will be flying around Tech’s Sherlock Park and chasing four balls on broomsticks on Feb. 16.
If the game sounds familiar, it is. Tech’s quidditch team, the Golden Hippogriffs, is hosting a tournament based on the game made famous by J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels.
“We really love quidditch and want the chance to see some of the teams we will be competing against at the World Cup,” said team co-captain Landon Smith, a biology major from Crossville. “We want to show the public what quidditch is and how much entertainment it holds.”
In Rowling’s books, quidditch is played by witches and wizards who fly on broomsticks. The game has been adapted, mostly by college students, for the non-magical world and is increasingly popular. There are more than 800 teams registered with the International Quidditch Assocation, which is based in New York City and sponsors the Quidditch World Cup every year.
Twelve teams from eight states will be at Tech for the day-long tournament, which will begin at 8:30 a.m. and go until sunset.
Admission to the tournament is free, but the team will sell concessions, T-shirts and other merchandise to raise money to travel to the World Cup in April in Florida.