On any given afternoon, the Parade Ground is alive with soccer players, joggers, spectators and people running around with PVC pipe between their legs. It’s not because they enjoy discomfort, nor is it done to be a public spectacle. They do it for the love of quidditch. There is no magic, but LSU quidditch players Brad Armentor and Sarah Kneiling experienced some sort of enchantment at the international Quidditch World Cup held in London this summer. “London itself was really awesome because I got to meet a bunch of new friends on the [U.S.] team … We all got to hang out and realize just how American we all were,” Armentor said. “It was just cool to hang out with people from different walks of life.” The entire tournament was played on July 8 with all five teams playing round robin-style. The U.S. swept the competition, besting Great Britain, Australia, Canada and France to place first at the World Cup. Armentor and Kneiling were nominated by their LSU captains to be among the 21 players on the U.S. team. The two said the experience they gained at the tournament was invaluable. “We learned a lot about different play styles in different parts of the U.S.,” Kneiling said. “We learned a lot about how the international teams play, but we also just got a better feel for quidditch on the national level, which is important for playing those teams in the future.” The pair has been around the quidditch program since its early days, and their wizard-like mastery of the sport comes from years spent enjoying muggle athletics. Armentor is a kinesiology major in his fourth year at LSU. He plays chaser and keeper, and he has been a member of the LSU quidditch team since 2009. The Lake Arthur, La., native was heavily involved in athletics as a child, playing football, basketball, track and one year of baseball at Lake Arthur High School.
Armentor’s athletic background has contributed to his success as a quidditch player. “A lot of the playing styles of the different sports I did translate really well to [quidditch],” Armentor said. Kneiling’s sports background isn’t as broad – the Baton Rouge native only played soccer and swam for one year at McKinley High School. Aside from athletic ability, beaters like Kneiling require a quick thought process and must be able to make quick decisions. “The way that I understand the game helps me a lot… [beater] is a very strategic position,” Kneiling said. Like most of the current generation, Kneiling and Armentor both read the Harry Potter series. However, neither of them knew much about the actual game before coming to LSU. “I had kind of heard about [quidditch] in high school,” Armentor said. “I didn’t know if it was actually a real thing, but I heard that [LSU] had a club… [a friend] asked me to play, and I was like, ‘Alright.’ And I’ve been playing ever since.” Kneiling, who is entering her sixth year at LSU, recalled being involved in the club’s inception. “A few people that I knew started putting up fliers around dorms for people interested in joining a team,” Kneiling said. “And we had a meeting, then started playing and kept playing.” LSU has finished fifth at the past two nation-wide “world cups,” but Armentor said the rise in competition will make life hard for the Tigers. “The level of competition since I started playing has grown exponentially … as we’ve gotten better, so has everybody else,” Armentor said. When Kneiling looks into her crystal ball, she sees success for LSU quidditch in the near future. “I’m pretty confident that we’ll do well enough at regionals,” Kneiling said. “But if we get the right people, if we have the right attitude, we can definitely win the world cup.”
—- Contact Marcus Rodrigue at [email protected]