By Satyne Doner, Arts and Culture Editor
When we think of sports, we often think of the usual: soccer, hockey, golf, and tennis… But have you ever heard of ultimate frisbee? What about unicycle hockey or even quidditch? No, these are not made up. These are weird real-life sports that are turning heads all over the world!
JK Rowling’s book series Harry Potter features a fantasy sport called quidditch in which witches and wizards ride on flying broomsticks to capture the “Golden Snitch.” This full-contact game is like soccer because each team must prevent other players from capturing the “Quaffle” (ball) or scoring a goal.
Now, quidditch is a game that is played in real life, minus the witches and wizards and flying. It started in Vermont in 2005, but across the pond in the UK, there are up to 30 teams! The game is a mixture of dodgeball and rugby, where players must run with brooms between their legs.
“I would try real-life quidditch because then I could live out my Hogwarts dreams,” said Liz Diaz, a junior at Saint Leo studying clinical counseling psychology.
Next up is the ultimate frisbee. Unlike the typical game of frisbee played between friends on the beach, ultimate frisbee is made up of two teams of seven. It is like playing football, trying to make a touchdown, but with a frisbee. Players are not allowed to run with the frisbee; they can only pass it to one another. It is interesting to mention that there is also no referee present to ensure fair play and sportsmanship.
“I would not try ultimate frisbee because I do not think that would interest me, but I would watch a game of it,” said Adrianna Astudillo, a sophomore studying English.
Lastly, we have perhaps the strangest sport of all of them: unicycle hockey. In France, there are more than 50 registered teams, and there are eleven in the United Kingdom. In unicycle hockey, there are five players per team with no goalie, so they all must work together to keep the ball out of the goal net. Both feet must always be on the pedals of the unicycle. This requires balance and core strength!
Students at Saint Leo had mixed opinions on unicycle hockey.
“[…] unicycle hockey sounds dangerous,” said Diaz. “I also would not watch unicycle hockey because I do not really like normal hockey.”
However, not all the opinions were negative or cautionary.
“I would love to watch a game of unicycle hockey just to see what it is all about,” said Astudillo.
In conclusion, these strange sports come in many forms- broomsticks and unicycles, to name a few- but they all have one thing in common: they are fun! We want to know- would you ever play any of these unusual sports?
