Hey Y'all,
As the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic rage on and the Black Lives Matter movement fights for racial equality in the face of police brutality and racism in the US and around the world, I decided that it was time to write a different kind of piece and reflect on less turbulent times. This time last year, I was in the US myself, just a few weeks into my trip having visited Boston and New York before heading to Honesdale, Pennsylvania where I'd be working at summer camp for 10 weeks followed by a month's worth of travel around the country afterwards. More or less since I started playing, I knew I wanted to go and play and experience US quidditch for myself someday and having done one summer of camp in the US back in 2014, I also knew that I wanted to return and do another summer at some point so this seemed like as good a time as any to satisfy those two desires. Like when watching match footage, I also enjoy travelling to different countries for quidditch to see for myself what it's like on the field but also to learn about different perspectives on the sport and the culture that surrounds it. So, I would like to talk a bit about my experiences of quidditch in the US in its various forms and what I learned across the summer. This will be the first installment of a five part series starting with my experience of running a Youth quidditch program at summer camp with further reflections to come in the next few weeks.
Our story starts at Camp Towanda, a sleepaway summer camp for kids aged 7-16 in the Poconos mountains outside of Honesdale, Pennsylvania- a true example of quaint small town America. Back in January 2019 while researching summer camp jobs ahead of an upcoming job fair, I came across the camp's website and was shocked and amazed to find that one of the activities they offered to their campers was quidditch! Originally, I was looking to get hired in a role that would use my skills as a swimming instructor or lifeguard however as soon as I saw this, I thought to myself- "Yes, this is it!", I knew it was an opportunity I had to take. I immediately emailed the camp asking about the job and they told me that they were still looking to fill the position and that I should speak to one of their recruiters at the job fair. Following a brief interview and overview of the role and the camp itself, I was hired on the spot both as a specialist to run the quidditch program and as a lifeguard so that I could help with activities down at the waterfront during busy sessions and events.
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| Getting hired at the job fair in Manchester. I came suitably dressed for the occasion. |
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| I made it on the Camp USA instagram story! Photo credit- Camp USA |
The first kind of realisation I had when arriving in the US (which was made pretty apparent to me during my days at camp) was that, although quidditch as we know it was created in America and is home to some of the very best teams and players to ever play the sport, it's still very much something that's new and a lot of people are unaware of. This was something I really wanted to find out and naively I thought that more people would have at least have heard of it or knew that their local college had a program or that their city had a team but sadly I was mistaken on this. I soon found that my time at camp with regards to quidditch would be a microcosm of the sport's existence to date. This was only the second year that there had been a quidditch program at Towanda so there were lots of challenges I had to face with regards to establishing quidditch as both a fun activity at camp and getting the recognition it deserves as a sport.
I worked closely with Jared, one of the main staff members who first discovered quidditch while at Boston University and decided to bring it to camp. He introduced me to the rules, equipment and playing space that had been used in the previous year which were interesting to say the least. The most impressive thing was the playing space which was an old concrete roller hockey pitch converted to look like the Hogwarts quidditch stadium with the multi-coloured flags in the colours of the different Hogwarts houses on the wooden side barriers of the pitch and on the lighting towers next to it. While I don't confess to being a massive Harry Potter fan these days, I felt like this was a pretty cool place to call my office for the summer. Jared had lovingly made a set of hoops which were painted gold with a plastic parasol base at the bottom, a plastic pole and connector, with a hula hoop at the top held together with a bit of duct tape (classic quidditch!). The quaffles and bludgers were fairly standard kids size volleyballs and dodgeballs but the big changes were the brooms which were pool noodles (half red, half blue to distinguish between two different teams) and the snitch which while still being a tennis ball, in actual gameplay seeking included a flag football tag to become more like a game of Tag/Capture The Flag than the more physical snitch runner type play we're used to seeing in the main form of the sport (more to come on this later).
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| Photo Credit- Camp Towanda Media Team |
As someone with lots of responsibilities to attend to around camp, Jared was very happy to put all his trust in my expertise in terms of running the program by myself and was happy to step in if I needed help with something which was massively reassuring to me and gave me the confidence to mould the program to my image. While I went into the position with experience of coaching and teaching quidditch and other sports (mostly swimming) as well as leading a summer camp sports program, I had only one day's worth of experience with youth quidditch (kidditch, if you want to call it that) so I wasn't entirely sure what I was getting myself into but I soon found out what challenges came with bringing quidditch to a younger generation.
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| Photo Credit- Camp Towanda Media Team |
The biggest obstacle was the rules. Through my years in the sport, I've seen educated intelligent 18/19 year old freshers struggle to grasp the rules and general gameplay of quidditch so I knew that it was going to be a tricky task to create a rule set that would be simplistic enough for the children to follow and play a cohesive game with while also making sure the gameplay would emulate that of the version we love and enjoy both for my satisfaction and so that the children could make a link between the two. I also had to consider inclusivity (having all 20-30 kids involved during each match instead of just 6 or 7 at a time) and safety (no physical contact, the limitations and risks of playing on a concrete pitch with wooden walls surrounding it). Without going into excruciating detail, the version of quidditch we ended up playing did have that overall 'handball mixed with dodgeball' aspect although with a few alterations such as the seekers entering play after a set amount of time and having to run from a 'home goal area' around their hoops to the opposition's to retrieve a snitch (tennis ball) and bring it back to their home goal area without being beat or getting their flag pulled by the other team's seeker in order to get 50 points. Another big change was that while positions were loosely assigned to different players, beaters and chasers could transition between positions so that all kids could engage in the game however you could only throw a bludger to knock out an opponent if you were stood in one of the 5 circles (called beater circles) marked out by the old hockey pitch.
Even with the rules being adjusted to suit the conditions and the participants, games would often be plunged into chaos with me standing in the middle of it trying my best to referee as fairly as possible. With so many players in the game and kids and counselors getting confused with the rules (or in some cases being completely oblivious to them), it was definitely hard at times to keep track of everything going on. Sometimes I would try and enlist fellow counselors to assist me as assistant referees to varying levels of success but even in the best of circumstances the matches were still hectic and served as a further reminder that quidditch in any form is a complex sport to officiate.
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| Photo Credit- Camp Towanda Media Team |
When planning my sessions, I knew I had to focus on making quidditch as fun as possible and not get too bogged down in the technical side of things like the more established sports at camp could do. As a fringe sport, quidditch was an activity that each age group was scheduled for fairly sporadically across the summer so it needed to be something refreshing and enjoyable. After a short warm up activity, I'd start each session with a mini-game (e.g. Beater bulldog, Capture The Flag, Quidditch handball etc.) based around a set of skills so that when we went on to play a match afterwards, the kids could use those skills and be better at the sport without me necessarily having to really coach them bar a few tips here or there. After playing as many matches as possible, I'd finish the session with a debrief- praising certain individuals for their engagement and achievements within the game, giving advice and also clarifying any misconceptions there may have been over the rules.
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| Photo Credit- Camp Towanda Media Team |
Besides the practical aspects of my job, I also had to tackle the perceptions people had about the sport. Being 'the quidditch guy', staff, counselors and kids alike would regularly ask me questions about the sport both in terms of how it worked at camp and also in the outside world and I was more than happy to indulge them no matter how ridiculous their query may have been. I realised that not only was I representing my country like the other counselors were, I was also an ambassador for my whole sport and I wanted to represent it in the best light possible. As most quidditch players have experienced in their lives, people would be critical and make jokes at the expense of me and the sport, warped by their minimal exposure to the altered version they'd experienced while at camp and by their knowledge of Harry Potter. Despite this, I did my best to brush it off and not let it get to me, instead focusing on what makes quidditch so great. Many people (especially males) who I interacted with while at camp had a concrete idea of what they considered to be sports and were quite set in their ways in terms of which ones they enjoyed so at times it could be a real struggle to convince them of my perspective but this is hardly new to most seasoned quidditch players. Equally though, I also had a lot of positive engagement with me and the sport. On the pitch, many of the kids could be just as competitive and eager to learn as they were in any other camp activity and when their counselors joined in the sessions with them and were enthusiastic about it, this made for a really successful and satisfying experience for campers and counselors alike. More often than not, I'd be packing away after a session thinking to myself about how great it was to be able to share the sport I love so much with a new generation of kids and seeing them get so much enjoyment out of it made me feel really pleased with myself, knowing I was having a positive impact on those around me. When I wasn't doing quidditch or lifeguarding at the waterfront, like all counselors I was tasked with looking after kids in one of the age groups and the 12 year old boys I looked after were the most inquisitive. Like others at camp, some were fairly close-minded and negative towards the sport but some became really invested and interested and wanted to find out more, especially about who the best quidditch players and teams were. One of my highlights of the summer was at lunch one day when we were talking about quidditch and one of the boys asked me about who I thought the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) was. So I told them about Augustine Monroe and his achievements, explaining why he was so good, and mentioned that I'd be going to visit him after camp and they found that amazing! A few of my boys called me 'Augie' for the rest of the summer and it always made me chuckle.
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| Photo Credit- Camp Towanda Media Team |
Overall, I'd say I had an incredible summer at Camp Towanda. While at times my job could be a bit of an uphill battle, it was a rewarding experience to face the tougher aspects of the role and beneficial in furthering my professional and personal development as a coach and educator. As those that have ever done it will tell you, working at summer camp in America is one of the most unique and fantastic experiences you can have so besides the quidditch, it was also immensely fun to get stuck in with all the other activities and events that happened across the summer, especially Camp Olympics, 4th July celebrations, the Talent Show and the trips we went on. Summer camp is something I recommend to everyone and anyone as it's an amazing way to spend a summer and, as cheesy as it sounds, it gives you the opportunity to make lifelong friends and unforgettable memories. If anyone reading this feels inspired to get involved with running the quidditch program at Camp Towanda in 2021, I strongly urge you to send an email to jared@camptowanda.com to express your interest. While sadly I am unlikely to return to Towanda myself due to professional commitments, I feel passionately that Youth quidditch is an important aspect of the sport's development and I'd love to see programs like Towanda's flourish in the years to come. Trust me, this an awesome summer job while also being a great opportunity to help grow the sport of quidditch and it really doesn't get much better than that.
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| Some non-quidditch highlights from my summer at Towanda. Photo Credit- Camp Towanda Media Team |
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| Photo Credit- Camp Towanda Media Team |
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| Photo Credit- Camp Towanda Media Team |
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| Photo Credit- Camp Towanda Media Team |
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| Photo Credit- Camp Towanda Media Team |
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| Photo Credit- Camp Towanda Media Team |
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| Photo Credit- Camp Towanda Media Team |
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| Photo Credit- Camp Towanda Media Team |
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| Photo Credit- Camp Towanda Media Team |
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| Photo Credit- Camp Towanda Media Team |
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| Photo Credit- Camp Towanda Media Team |
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| Photo Credit- Camp Towanda Media Team |
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| Photo Credit- Camp Towanda Media Team |
Anyway, that's it for Part 1. If you've read this far then I hope you've enjoyed it. In part 2, I'll be talking about my experience of the 2019 Major League Quidditch Championship which should be available soon so stay tuned!
FP
#TQ
#LiveTheGame
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