3/12/2014 0 Comments Diamond In The Tuff: Nora MuellerNora Mueller wasn't originally going to join quidditch but, luckily for us, she was convinced by two girls in her hall to attend open practice. There, she was told that if she attended two practices a week she could attend World Cup - which sounded like a pretty sweet deal to Nora. Additionally, the aggressive nature of quidditch appealed to Nora, who truly enjoyed tackling people. At her first practice, Nora tried out and played as a keeper. However, her teammates broke the news to her that, standing at 5'3'', she didn't fit the bill. Nora's favorite part of playing quidditch is when you're on the field as a beater and your teammate catches the snitch. As a beater, she says that you're pretty much the first person to see the catch, so the excitement is unparalleled. Although she is known on the field for her aggressive playing, Nora is actually a very graceful and delicate dancer. She started dancing at the age of three at her town's community center. One of her prouder moments was receiving her toe shoes in grade 7. Nora loves dancing point because it makes her legs look very long - something that short people often don't get to experience. In high school, Nora joined her studio's competition team and she loved the feeling of being on stage. She says that dancing in front of an audience makes her feel like nothing else matters - the rush of adrenaline as you walk onto the stage makes her truly believe that she can be whoever she wants. At Tufts, Nora is minoring in dance and finds herself choreographing a lot, which is a very new and exciting experience for her. At World Cup 7, Nora is looking forward to playing new teams, hanging out with the Tufflepuffs, and just generally having a blast.
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Madeleine joined quidditch because her RA, sophomore Tufflepuff Max Leonhardt, told her to come to the first open practice of the year. On top of Max's good influence, Madeleine's little sister pushed her to try out since she thought quidditch sounded cool. This freshman tufflepuff thinks it's awesome that most people who join quidditch don't have any prior experience so everyone learns together and starts out on the same page. Additionally, Madeleine thinks that the people on the Tufts Tournament team are pretty fantastic - so she's constantly looking forward to traveling to tournaments and spending time together as a tuffle-family. On top of her role as lady chaser, Madeleine likes being involved as much as possible in a broad spectrum of acitivities and groups. This tufflepuff plans on majoring in IR and taking as many languages as she can - she's currently taking German and Russian, and wants to explore languages like french, italian and chinese before graduating. Outside of the classroom, Madeleine likes to try crazy and outgoing activities - which is why quidditch is a good match for her. This year, Madeleine joined the Tufts Ballroom club and has been competing in competitions with them over the past two semesters. She also loves exploring the outdoors, and trying things that generally fly under the radar. For instance, Madeleine has done pole vaulting and trapezeing all in the past year! Madeleine is excited to play teams she knows nothing about at World Cup 7 and to just experience the whole event for the first time! Alan Bartels joined quidditch because he had a block of free time his first week at Tufts that, luckily for us, coincided with tryouts. Alan showed up and was initially caught by how different a sport it was from anything he had seen or played before. He was also surprised by how intense of a game it was, which greatly appealed to his aggressive style of play. This freshman beater loves the fact that people often think that quidditch is just a bunch of Harry Potter nerds running around on sticks, when, in actuality, it's a bunch of Harry Potter nerds who are incredibly athletic running around on sticks. Alan's favorite part of quidditch has to be the fact that it's such a dynamic game. There are multiple games going on at once - the quaffle play, the beater play and the seeker play - that cross paths and are their own entity at the same time. On top of that, the play never stops and you're never in a position where there's nothing you can do. Rather, it's what you should do that really matters, making quidditch an extremely strategical game. Alan is a biomedical engineer and boxes. He says that, other than quidditch, the most enjoyable part of Tufts so far has been bonding with his hall. Coming to tufts, Alan was worried about finding a group of people that he could rely on no matter what. His hall mates soothed this anxiety almost immediately. These incredible freshmen represent a huge range of people - coming from all over the world, including as far as Paris and as close as Massachusetts. This hall has their own intramural soccer team and often host their own Super-Smash Bro's and Fifa tournaments. These guys make Alan feel at home and are more than he could have ever asked for. Special shout out to his rommate Henry! In terms of World Cup, Alan is most looking forward to the experience of seeing the huge variety of people - from all over the world and from different sport backgrounds - coming together to play quidditch. He imagines that it will be a very unique experience that he would never get to experience otherwise... Who else gets to say that they spent a weekend in South Carolina playing quidditch at the World Cup?! Winner of the Gilderoy Lockhart Award for Most Dynamic Hair, Steve's hair has set a high standard within the IQA. These luscious locks never take a bad picture and blows seductively in the wind as it blows past the opposition. Covering part Steve's left eye, Steve's hair first got noticed at World Cup 6 - where it managed to fight the humidity and heat in style. Since then, it goes out of its way to never get a hair-cut too close to a tournament. Although it may be hard to believe, these locks were originally blonde and curly before they became what they are today. To get hair like this, Steve's hair says that it only uses shampoo, no conditioner and no product. In short, he woke up like this - flawless. Steve's hair applied to Harvard, Princeton, Tufts, Stanford and Brown and got into all 5 schools. Ultimately, Steve's hair went to Tufts and because his head went to Tufts. At Tufts, he is double-majoring in neuroscience and philosophy, and hopes to one day change the world by creating a cure for baldness. In terms of World Cup 7, Steve's hair is looking forward to once again looking flawless while dominating his competition. Steve Mullahoo is easily recognized on the pitch by both his height and his luscious locks. Steve first met the quidditch team when he was dragged to a quidditch party his first semester at Tufts because he was over 6'2''. At the time, the Tufflepuffs were in desperate need of a tall keeper, and Steve fit the bill perfectly. He had a decent time at the party and decided to attend practice the following week and try out as a keeper. There, he realized he didn't suck and the rest is history. Steve's favorite part of playing quidditch is playing consistently with his line - Max, Ben & Hannah - since he knows that they execute plays well together. He says that he has a high level of trust in these chasers and enjoys laughing with them about an insane catch or goal while running back to the hoops. Steve has inspired both the noun and the verb "Mullahoo". For instance, you may hear the Tufflepuffs using the verb "Mullahoo" to describe Steve's windmill arm as he drives past the opposing team. On the other hand, a " Mullahoo" is often used by the team to describe a classic yard-sale, where Steve or another player will fall without provocation and, in the process, lose their broom and the ball. Verb: "Steve just Mullahoo'd that chaser at mid-pitch!" Noun:"Damn, he just tripped over his own feet and pulled a Mullahoo" Steve's two primary extracurricular activities are quidditch and Magic. While he had no prior quidditch experience, Steve came to Tufts already playing Magic semi-seriously and wanted to find a club where he could continue his interest in the game. Since the club that had previously hosted Magic games was disbanded due to accounting issues, Steve took it upon himself to get a group of students together to play. It started off as a small group of friends getting together occasionally, but kept snowballing to the point where Steve had to apply to make the group a student organization. This allowed the Magic team to receive funding to travel to bigger and bigger tournaments. This team is Steve's baby at Tufts, and he's proud that he created it from nothing. Over the past three years, Steve has placed in some big-name tournaments and is currently ranked 40th so far this season in Massachusetts. This coming March Break, Steve and his team are traveling to Montreal to compete in an international competition, where he hopes to win it all. At World Cup, Steve is excited to play with the Tufflepuffs since he believes that they're currently the best team he's played with over the past three years. With them, he hopes to outshine past World Cup performances. Matthew Cardarelli is the current Tufts Quidditch Captain. As a freshman, Matt was introduced to the sport by his RA at the time, Tufflepuff alumni David Meyers! Once Matt was convinced to attend his first practice, he couldn't stop. His favorite part of the game is the mental aspect and the strategy that's involved. He especially enjoys testing himself against elite beaters and trying out new tactics to overcome his opposition. Matt's favorite quidditch memory occurred his freshman year: during one of the first few games he played, Matt saw the snitch running back to the pitch followed by the seekers. He made a split decision to leave the pitch with his bludger and dead sprint after the snitch. He was able to beat the opposing beater and got to watch his fellow Tufflepuff, Duncan Leaf, duel with the snitch on top of a brick wall before catching the snitch. On top of all the quidditch he plays, Matt often spends time playing pick-up basketball with his friends. Basketball is easily our captain's favorite game since it's one of the few sports where there's very little stoppage of game - as soon as you score it continues. As someone with an incredibly high energy level, basketball provides the intensity Matt has come to seek out in sports. When Matt's not at the gym, you can often find him in one of the computer labs. Majoring in both physics and computer science is a challenge, but it's exactly that that compelled him to double major in these subjects. For instance, Matt says that he didn't do very well in the intro level physics classes, but decided to he wanted to do it anyways. Additionally, computer science lets Matthew be creative and encounter problems that leave him perplexed at the same time as fascinated. One of his favorite parts of his second major is that, when you leave class, you leave with a fully functional program as opposed to a set of knowledge. Matthew is looking forward to being immersed in a community of amazing people this April at World Cup. He's excited to have the opportunity to once again experience the atmosphere of the competition and see the friends he's made in the quidditch community. Nicolas, one of our newest male chasers, joined the Tufflepuffs because it sounded like a fun alternative to playing soccer and a great way to geek out. On the field, you'll often find Nick shakin' and bakin' before using his remarkable speed to score. On the sidelines, this engineer can be found cheering on his teammates or goofing off. His sense of humor is extremely appreciated at practices, especially during rough conditioning sessions. Throughout high-school, Nick played right wing on highly competitive soccer teams in Texas. He says that his experience from soccer truly helps him now as a small chaser. Our former soccer star also has a love for competitive soccer - he is a devout supporter of Liverpool. This team was the first team he ever saw play and he's supported them ever since. He even supports Louis Suarez despite his biting scandal. But don't think Nick is all sports all the time - this Tufflepuff has a great love for computer science, his two poodles and the Lord of The Rings movies. Although he hasn't read the books, Nick has seen this movie series multiple times from start to finish. While his favorite hobbit is Pippin, if he could choose anyone from the movies he would want to be Gandalf because he's a major badass. Nick is looking forward to his first World Cup. He believes it'll be cool to play some of the top teams in world, especially since Tufts is considered to be a major contender in Myrtle Beach! Before trying out to be a Tufflepuff, this California girl wasn't sure if she was cut out for this sport. Luckily for us, she was convinced to try it out when a couple of Tufflepuffs approached her during the Activity Fair two years ago. Over the summer, Hannah played in a bunch of Fantasy Tournaments and has become a rising star in the quidditch community ever since. Her pure talent and skill is simply not debatable (sorry - we had to throw that in there). Hannah says that her favorite part of the game is getting to play with so many different types of people. She grew up playing soccer with the same group of girls and, although she loves them, she enjoys getting to play with people from various different sport backgrounds. When she's not kicking ass on the quidditch pitch, Hannah can be found writing out a hundred different compounds for organic chemistry or practicing her Tae Kwon Do. Hannah started doing this form of martial arts during her freshman year at Tufts and has since participated in over 7 different tournaments - even winning a couple of medals along the way! In the Tae Kwon Do world, Hannah is well know for her push kicks and we do not recommend getting in her way when she's angry! In terms of World Cup 7, Hannah is most excited to see the difference between not knowing anyone last year and now being able to see all of the new quidditch friends that she has made since then! Our resident freshman redhead always knew he was destined to play quidditch. Even before coming to Tufts, Breandan had heard of this quirky sport and felt like it might just be the very thing he had been searching for his whole life. Before coming to Boston, Breandan was a star LAX player and starred in a couple plays at school including Les Miserables. But now that he has his very own blue and brown jersey, Breandan knows that he was meant to play quidditch. While he loves playing keeper (especially since the green headband goes perfectly with his rusty red hair), his favorite part of the game is watching the snitch/seeker play happen. You will never catch this kid without a smile on his face... He even smiles while carrying twenty to thirty pounds of hoops and while getting hit in the face with a bludger! This enthusiastic freshman is a hit with both the kids he plays with at kidditch and with the kids he teaches to ski during the winter. He says that teaching children to ski is very rewarding and he absolutely loves making them laugh. But don't think they're laughing cause this gangly kid looks funny gliding down the hill... Trust us, he looks absolutely majestic - like he was made for the mountain. What Breandan is most excited to experience at his first World Cup is witnessing the pinacle of the quidditch community! Babycakes' personal quidditch story is the epitome of his experience on our team: he only tried out because his friends joked about it. No one thought that two years later he'd still be playing, let alone whizzing down the pitch on a broom and dekeing out players like a pro. To this day, he jokes about not wanting to play, but we all know that, deep down, his love for our team is greater than his love for the Chicago Blackhawks. Something you may not know about our native Chicagoan is that he is a twin! Sam, Ben's older sister (by a couple of minutes), is studying at Oberlin and Ben is helping her start an intramural quidditch team at her school. What excites Ben the most about going to the World Cup in Myrtle Beach is the chance to play in a warm climate. |
AuthorTufts University Tufflepuffs, catching snitches and wrecking pitches since 2009. CategoriesAll Diamond In The Tuff Fundraising New Kids On The Block Tufflepuffs In Summer Archives
July 2016
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