Brown University has a quadball team, and they’re good. The team is division two, ranked 17 out of 39 colleges competing in the national tournament, the U.S. Quadball Cup. They are placed above colleges like Middlebury, Tufts, Purdue, and Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute (RPI), and are just below Boston University’s team. To put that into perspective, there are over 100 collegiate teams in the U.S. that the Brown Bears Quadball team had to beat in the rankings for a chance to win it all.
The sport is becoming steadily more and more popular. Besides U.S. collegiate teams, there are competitive club teams for adults – which will also compete at the U.S. Quadball (USQ) Cup – and even international professional teams across 40 countries; the United States National Team competes in the International Quadball Association. Despite the sport’s growing traction, many have never heard of quadball.
Quadball is inspired by Quidditch, the magical sport from “Harry Potter.” Founded in 2005 at Middlebury College by Xander Manshel and Alex Benepe, quadball is a mixed-gender full-contact sport that combines elements of rugby, dodgeball, basketball, and flag football.
Rhode Island’s history with quadball also extends back over a decade. The first quadball team in Rhode Island was started at Brown in 2011 by alumni Derik Wagner and Jeff Blum as an “unofficial” team, not funded by the school. They called themselves the India Point Ashwinders after India Point Park, but later rebranded as simply the Providence Ashwinders. It wasn’t until September of 2021 that the quadball team became an official sport on campus.
The Brown team is the only collegiate or club team in Rhode Island. To compete nationally, representing not only Brown University but also the smallest state, the team will travel to Round Rock, Texas, for two days of gameplay during April 13 and 14. Like many underfunded collegiate quadball teams, the Brown Bears Quadball team took to intense fundraising to buy the flights to Texas to compete. The team’s communications officer, Aadi Mehndiratta (class of 2027), started a “haircut fundraiser,” promising that he would get a bowl cut if they raised $250, and then shave a bald spot on his head if they received over $500.
Their roster headed to Nationals totals 15 students – a relatively small team compared to some who host a full roster of 21 athletes – many of whom are new to the sport. “Seven players are rookies,” Mehndiratta says, including himself, who only started playing quadball this past September. One of the team captains, Karsten Assoua (class of 2027) also started playing this year. Self-dubbed a “big ‘Harry Potter’ fan” since the age of 13, Assoua fell into the sport after seeing a pop-up online about college teams. “I signed up during the summer before the semester even started,” he remembers. Assoua lives on the same floor as Mehndiratta, and it was he who told the communications officer about an open practice on the green. It’s what got them both hooked.
“I’ve always loved sports, but I’ve never found something I really enjoyed until now,” Assoua says, listing off badminton, soccer, and even MMA as athletic activities tried and discarded. The “physicality” and the “precision” required to play quadball and play it well is “kind of addicting,” he says. Mehndiratta agrees: “I can’t really imagine not playing quadball.” He is considering playing for a club team over the summer or staying active within the U.S. Quadball organization in some capacity post-graduation.
The team is looking forward to proving their worth at the national tournament. “We’re undervalued, in general, as a team,” Fiametta Boffey (class of 2024), the other captain of the team, asserts. “We’ve missed a lot of opportunities for advancement because of injuries and a smaller roster,” so the standings posted on U.S. Quadball’s website may not accurately reflect the strength of the Brown Bears.
They’re going in as an underdog, but they believe their passion and scrappy skills can bring them to the top. The team does have a good track record. They had traveled to Nationals last year, making it all the way to the semi-finals until a loss against Texas State knocked them out of the running.
“Nationals is where you see it all come out on the pitch,” Boffey says. There’s limited footage of quadball teams that are competing in the tournament, so it can be hard to predict what offenses and defenses another team might run, or their skill level. For example, there is no footage at all of the University of Minnesota’s quadball team (Minnesota Quadball), making them a dark horse in the tournament. They will be the first team Brown plays on April 13.
The tournament schedule can be found online here, and viewers interested in streaming the games can catch the action live on the U.S. Quadball YouTube page.