Members of the Dirigible Plums (l-r): Carlen Long (PO), Ben Teng (HMC), Jordan Castillo (PO), and Emily Roizin ’15
If a group of Claremont students runs past you, holding onto broomsticks and throwing balls at one another, don’t worry! They’re just members of the Dirigible Plums, the official Quidditich team of The Claremont Colleges.
Started by juniors Amy Borsuk and Allyson Healey, the team is now in its second season of competition and is aptly named after a fruit in the popular Harry Potter universe, where they are rumored to “enhance the ability of one to accept the extraordinary.”
For anyone who’s managed to avoid all knowledge of the magical world of Harry Potter, Quidditch is the official sport of witches and wizards the world over. And since we “muggles” (non-magical people) lack the ability to enchant and fly on broomsticks, the game simulates these exhilarations with earthbound running and throwing the Quaffle – er, ball – through three hoops on opposite ends of the playing field.
The transformations don’t end there; the game’s Golden Snitch, originally a winged metal MacGuffin the size of a golf ball, becomes a person clad in bright yellow tights sprinting around the field to avoid capture. This ersatz Snitch can throw water balloons, don costumes, or do anything they like – as long as they’re within the field’s boundaries.
“I wanted to be active in a sport that wasn’t Division III, that was fun and physically intensive, but not time-consuming, and that had a warm, close-knit community,” Borsuk says. “Quidditch was the answer to this puzzle.”
College Quidditch started at Middlebury College in Vermont and quickly spread across the country. It is overseen by the nonprofit International Quidditich Association, which helps start franchises, regulate scoring, and connect teams with one another. The sport remains student-run; teams rarely enlist coaches and game times and tournaments are decided by the teams. Last semester, Claremont hosted its first tournament organized by student Rachel Sherman (HMC ’15).
The Dirigible Plums includes players from all five colleges, with four of the colleges represented in leadership. Perhaps because it was started at Scripps, the team is predominantly made up of female players, which makes them unique among the majority of Quidditch teams in the Los Angeles area and across the country.
Borsuk says her favorite part of being on the team is the community it provides. “Quidditch is a goofy yet intense sport, and because it is based on the Harry Potter books, it lends itself to an easy-going, inclusive community,” she says. “I love the feeling of getting onto the pitch at the start of a game, looking at the team in our uniforms, and realizing, ‘We did this. We made this happen.’
“Our team embodies what is so wonderful about the spirit of Scripps: this is the time and place for us to step up and try new things, to encourage others to get excited about what we’re doing, and to get involved.”
Many of the Dirigible Plums have gone abroad for the spring semester, so they’re looking for new players. For more information, check out their Facebook page.