Rantoul Family Sports Complex will host a National Qualifier tournament for the sport of Quadball
Quadball is a mixed-gender contact sport combining elements of rugby, dodgeball, and tag — played while holding broomsticks
US Quadball will bring its Midwest Regional Tournament to the Rantoul Family Sports Complex this Nov. 18–19. This will not only be the first quadball event hosted at the complex but also the first major tournament hosted in Illinois — up to 15 teams and 300 athletes are expected to participate, in both collegiate and club divisions.
Quadball is a fast-paced contact sport created in 2005 by two college students at Middlebury and is now played by over 600 teams in 39 countries. A quadball team consists of up to 21 athletes with seven players per team on the field at any one time. Each player must keep a broom between their legs at all times. Points are scored by throwing a volleyball through any of three hoops fixed at either end of the field, while dodgeballs are used to temporarily “knock out” players. The snitch must be caught to end the game.
If quadball sounds suspiciously like a certain fictional game played on flying broomsticks at a certain fictional school for witches and wizards, that is no coincidence. The organization US Quadball began as US Quidditch in 2010. In 2022 it announced a rebranding “to better reflect our organization and sport today and where we want to go in the future.” Featured prominently in US Quadball’s “Core Values” is a promise “to strive to be a leader in gender and racial inclusivity.” Currently US Quadball serves an average of 2,500 athletes and over 100 teams each season nationwide.
“After connecting with US Quadball at a conference, we knew immediately that our area would be a perfect match for the Midwest Regional,” said Mike Koon, Director of Sports, Events & Film for Visit Champaign County. “We can’t wait to share the excitement of this sport with the greater Champaign County area.”
Ryan Reid, the Director of Operations for the RFSC, said, “We are thrilled that US Quadball has chosen the Rantoul Family Sports Complex as a host. Quadball is the first non-traditional sport to utilize our award-winning facility, and we hope to host them and other non-traditional events in the near future. We want to invite the entire community to enjoy a weekend of high-level competition in an up-and-coming sport.”
The November tournament is expected to draw teams from Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri,
Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Illinois who all have their eye on qualifying for the US Quadball Cup 2024 — scheduled for April 13-14, 2024, in Round Rock, Texas.
One quadball team in particular might have a particularly short journey to Rantoul: the University of Illinois’s own Illini Ridgebacks (yes, C-U has quadball!).
If you want to learn more about quadball before November, be on the lookout for coverage of the 2023 US Quadball Cup. It is scheduled to be played April 15-16, 2023, in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, with close to 70 teams currently registered.
The US Quadball Midwest Regional Tournament schedule at RFSC will be available closer to the tournament date in November 2023.