For Some Quidditch Players, The Magic Wears Off As Injury Risks Grow Clearer

It happened in a split second, and Vanessa Barker doesn't remember any of it. She doesn't remember dropping to the field, nor does she remember how she got hit.

When she came to, she was sitting on the sidelines with an EMT, being evaluated for what turned out to be her first concussion. Over the next two years, she'd suffer another two more while out on the field — hardly what she expected when she decided to start playing quidditch.

Before 2005, quidditch existed only as a creation from the fictional world of Harry Potter — a pastime for witches and wizards on flying broomsticks. But charmed by the game's allure, students at Middlebury College in Vermont held the first real-life quidditch match, a fast-paced, co-ed, full-contact combination of dodgeball, rugby and basketball.

Nearly a decade-and-a-half later, participation has grown dramatically, with teams sprouting up in communities