It hasn’t taken long for Brian Gallaway to find success in the growing sport of quidditch.
Gallaway, the son of David and Kim Gallaway, now resides in Red Deer, Alberta, where he competes with the Central Alberta Centaurs team. Gallaway and another Centaurs player, Ricky Boyce, played with the Edmonton Aurors, and won the Qudditch Canada National Championships that were contested at the University of Victoria (UVic) on April 1 and 2.
Quidditch started off as a fictitious sport in the Harry Potter novels, but has been brought to life with modified rules in recent years.
Gallaway was introduced to the sport by his girlfriend a few years ago after she attended a Harry Potter convention in Florida.
“When she came back to Red Deer, she decided to start a team in the city, and eventually I got roped into playing and it kind of grew from there,” he told Lifestyles.
He loves the strategic element of the sport, with the different positions and multiple balls on the field.
Gallaway never imagined he would win a national title in quidditch. About a year after he started playing, a provincial team was formed in Alberta. Eventually they attracted enough players in Alberta that the squad was split into separate teams for Edmonton and Calgary. Gallaway remained with the Edmonton team.
There were several university teams at nationals, including the University of Guelph, two teams from the University of British Columbia, and the host UVic entry. There was also Gallaway’s team from Edmonton, their rivals from Calgary and a team from the Toronto area.
“There are a few community teams like our team, but the majority would still be university teams,” said Gallaway. “That’s starting to change as people graduate and start up their own teams outside of school.”
The Aurors defeated the University of Guelph 90-30 in the national final. Gallaway said they used their speed to take an early lead. The game was closer than the score indicated, and the Aurors had to work hard throughout the contest.
Teams are awarded 10 points every time they put the ball through one of the three hoops at the end of each field. The ball can enter a hoop from either direction, making it difficult to play goal.
“You’re guarding three separate hoops at each end,” said Gallaway.
And just like in the Harry Potter novels, the game ends if one team catches the snitch, and the players run around with brooms between their legs.
Gallaway is a beater in the games.
“There are three bludgers on the field, which are dodgeballs, and beaters use those to disrupt play,” said Gallaway. “If anyone is hit with a bludger, they have to get off their broom, run back, touch the hoops, and then they’re back in the game. That’s the aspect that makes it different than any other sport; if it weren’t for beaters, we’d pretty much be playing handball with hoops.”
Gallaway believes the sport will continue to grow. Last summer they had 21 teams participating at the international championships, which is a 200 per cent increase from seven teams two years earlier.
The sport is really growing in popularity in Europe.
“It seems like it is something that has legs and is going to continue to grow,” said Gallaway.
In Alberta they have six teams playing at a developmental level, and they have a couple of youth programs in the province.
And he believes it could continue to grow in Saskatchewan. Gallaway is pleased the Estevan Public Library has held a tournament the last couple of years as a fundraiser for charity.
He is also managing the national team for Quidditch Canada, and is the president of the International Quidditch Association.
“Largely it’s because all of the national governing body presidents are all fairly busy running their own (national quidditch associations), so I stepped in and got elected,” said Gallaway.
Once again, it’s something he never imagined would have happened so quickly when he took up the sport just a few years ago.
