Two teams of Aggie Quidditch players trekked to Rock Hill, South Carolina, this weekend for a national championship tournament.
The sport, pulled from the pages of popular fantasy series “Harry Potter,” has developed a strong following, as 80 teams turned out for the World Cup Tournament. Both A&M teams, Silver Phoenix and Texas A&M Quidditch, failed to advance to bracket play in World Cup 8. Of the two, Texas A&M Quidditch finished highest, landing in 25th.
The comparatively inexperienced team fought hard and did even better than was expected of it, said Rachel Nicoletti, interdisciplinary studies sophomore and Texas A&M Quidditch member.
“We played our hearts out in every game,” Nicoletti said. “Considering we are a brand new team and that half of us had never even heard of Quidditch before the MSC Open House, I think more than anything what we wanted out of this year was to gain experience, which we did. We qualified for World Cup and we got fifth in the Southwest Regional Tournament when no one was expecting us to do that.”
The death of teammate Karen Barnett in March — whose jersey number the team recently retired — pulled the team especially close, Nicoletti said.
“The team is definitely a family,” Nicoletti said. “With the passing of a teammate, we play for her and under the circumstances we played alright. But instead of letting that defeat us we pulled through and it was a lot of fun for us. We play to have fun, we play for our teammate Karen Barnett who passed away, and I think that is a lasting memory that I will remember forever.”
The team finished with a 12-11 record, along with a winning record at the World Cup, 3-2. Still, despite its effort to be recognized as a club sport, the Quidditch team remains a student organization.
 “We applied last year and the year before but were turned down both years,” said Brady Thomas, wildlife and fisheries sciences freshman and Texas A&M Quidditch member. “Our hope is that we can become a club sport so that it will be easier for us to have a designated place to practice and host tournaments because other teams we play already have that and they can do more with their team because of it. I think that it helps our case that even with a team made up almost entirely of freshmen and in a sport that is based on experience, we still did great this season and made it to World Cup.”
With only two seniors leaving, the team will almost completely stay intact and the relationships that were built this year will stay strong, said Cody Mckenzie, animal science freshman.
“I’m so happy I made the choice to come try out for the team and made the team with all these people because now my teammates are my best friends,” Mckenzie said. “We hang out all the time and it builds such chemistry between us on and off the field so we are able to enjoy each other’s company wherever ever we go.”