“It’s unlike any other sport I have played but it’s a combination of so many sports that you’re used to playing,” said SU Quidditch Player Ryan Govoni

The rules of Muggle Quidditch, or human Quidditch, are very similar to those outlined by J.K. Rowling in the Harry Potter series,

“You have to adopt it for land use. You have to run with the broom in between your legs. You have to stay on your broom at all times. If you take the broom out from in between your legs you technically fall off your broom so you have to start back at your goal post,” said Govoni.

There are three chasers on each team who take the Quaffle and try to score it through the hoops. The two beaters play defense while seekers have to chase around the snitch.

The game broken down a little more:

Chasers must pass the Quaffle (white ball) and scoring points by throwing it through one of the opponent’s goals at each end. Three chasers play on a team. When a Chaser is hit by a Bludger while holding the Quaffle, he or she must drop the ball and run back to his or her own goalpost before rejoining the game.

Keepers are the goalies and block the attempts to score. One keeper plays on a team. Depending on the version of Quidditch played, Keepers can be invulnerable from being hit by the balls but in others, the keeper must freeze for a few seconds.

Beaters play defense by hitting opposing players with Bludgers, red balls. There are two Beaters on a team.

Seekers try to catch the Golden Snitch, who is a person dressed in yellow that runs around the field.

“I like to call it a combination of soccer and basketball with even a little dodge ball thrown in there. I guess a glorified game of tag in some aspect,” said Drew Shields, creator of the Syracuse University Quidditch Team.

Magic may have been crucial in the Harry Potter books but no fancy equipment is involved in Muggle Quidditch.

“I think we had to hit up the dollar store to get the brooms and home depot for the PVC stands and what not and then we just kinda grabbed a bunch of hula hoops and through them on top. It’s pretty bootleg,” said Shields.

Some players, including Chelsea Sigmond of the Syracuse University Team, love Harry Potter.

“I am a huge potter nerd,” aid Sigmond.

But others, including the creator of Quidditch at Syracuse University, started playing only after a friend started the game over summer break to impress his girlfriend.
“I didn’t really read the books I, didn’t really care about the movies but we came down there and played the game and it was pretty fun so we decided to start teams at our respective colleges the next year and its kinda turned into something that has grown and blossomed I guess,” said Shields.

Quidditch was invented at Middlebury College in Vermont and has grown internationally ever since. Here in Central New York there are teams recognized by the International Quidditch Association at Fayettville-Manlius High School, Cornell, Ithaca, SUNY-Geneseo, and here at Syracuse University.

“I got here the fall of my freshmen year which was last year and from what I understand it started about a year before that so I mean we’ve been getting a lot of new people every year so the team’s just kinda growing,” said Sigmond.

The SU teams plays at the Women’s Building Field every Sunday…

“We just usually play like pickup games it’s just a way to kill an afternoon especially on a lazy Sunday and it’s just kinda grown into a nice thing. It’s nice to see the same faces. We’ve gotten a lot of friends over the years from doing this. It’s just kinda a nice thing especially for kids their freshmen year don’t really know anybody it’s just kinda nice to get people together,” said Shields.

Ithaca and Cornell also practice on Sundays while SUNY Geneseo practices Saturday afternoons. Players say it’s more about having a good time than the rivalries between teams but that doesn’t mean things can’t get a little rough…

“Its full contact, there’s no tackling to the ground normally, you can do that if you want but there’s nothing that says you can’t grab somebody and strip them from the balls as hard as you want,” said Govoni.

The World Cup Quidditch Tournament was held in New York City this year, a big step up from the previous host city of Middlebury, Vermont. Although Syracuse was the only team from Central New York that attended and lost in the first round, they say Quidditch is more about having fun than actually winning.

“Ya know we are just a bunch of kids who come out here on a Sunday and just shoot the shit so we’re just going to go down there to see our friends that we’ve made over the years,” said Shields.

Some schools hope to make Quidditch a NCAA sport. But the Syracuse team has its doubts after the hoops they have had to go through trying to form a club team.

“I mean there’s a lot of red tape involved with trying to start something like this. We’ve always thought about becoming a club sport but there’s so much red tape and you have to sign this form/that form and you have to reserve fields. I think it’s actually too late in the year to reserve a field as a club so we realized it’s better to just come down here unofficially but i mean there’s a lot of red tape like that,” said Shields.

The teams say they have had their share of being made fun of.

“There are people who think we are nerds just running around trying to fly in our childhoods and there are other kids who just think this is the coolest thing ever so if we can help kids live out their childhood fantasies it’s just kinda nice thing to do,” said Shields.

But the bottom line of the SU Quidditch team, much like that of the Harry Potter books, is having fun.

“At the end of the day you’re playing a game where you’re running around on brooms based on a fictional sport so you can never take yourself too seriously no matter how aggressive you get, you have to kinda take a step back and realize I’m just doing this for fun,” said Shields.

Jessica Palombo, CONNECT Commentator tells us why she recycles.

I am not a tree-hugging hippy. I don’t drive a hybrid car, and the imported fish and vegetables I buy travel thousands of miles over land and sea to reach my plate.

But, there is one daily act I do whenever possible… because my generation grew up just knowing it was the right thing to do. So why do I see so many of my peers not doing it?
To me, recycling doesn’t even seem like a choice. It’s like brushing my teeth or wearing clothes. It’s what I was taught to do, and it just makes sense.

Think through a day in your life. Try adding up each time you throw something in the trash. Dental floss. Gum wrapper. Sandwich paper. Soda cup. Spoiled yogurt. According to the Public Broadcasting Company, all of these little things add up to an average of 4.4 pounds of garbage per person per day. Now multiply that by 7 billion people who live on earth, and you get almost 31 Billion pounds of trash generated every day on earth.

So with all that waste building up every day, people like to say, “I’m just one person. My soda bottles won’t change the future of the planet.” They’re right. But if everyone recycled even half the time, the EPA tells us that that we could vastly reduce the pollution from manufacturing, save energy, decrease greenhouse gases, conserve natural resources and help sustain the environment for our kids and grandkids. Plus, recycling creates jobs for Americans and helps reduce our dependence on foreign oil sources.
Syracuse is actually a really great place for recycling. The university and the county programs are out there. In your face.
I went to a neighborhood festival, and the Onondaga County recycling people, OCCRA, were there handing out blue bins and helpful lists to tell you what gets recycled and what doesn’t.
Walking around Syracuse University’s campus, I see recycle bins next to virtually every trash can. The people in charge make it easy to recycle.

That’s why it bothers me so much when the people around me don’t do it.

For example, in the Newhouse School, we have triple-purpose receptacles with three slots in the top: One for trash, one for paper, and one for other recyclables. This is exactly the setup I imagined might be possible at my old college, where the nearest recycle bin was usually on a different floor of the building.

But, even with the three options so clearly labeled, people still put their water bottles in the trash hole. Sometimes I think people don’t recycle when it’s not super convenient for them. But does it get any more convenient than being attached to the trash can? It’s almost like they are going out of their way to not recycle.
So even if you don’t believe in global climate change, or you think all recycling trucks secretly just go to straight to the city dump, there’s one big incentive for us poor college students…and everyone else… to recycle.
That’s why I bring my recyclables to the grocery store, get that deposit, and turn that trash into ice cream.

Why I Recycle from Jessica Palombo on Vimeo.

The War Memorial, located in Downtown Syracuse.

Around the country, hometown fans seem to fall in love with their team’s old arena.  Los Angeles fans love Dodger Stadium.  People in Boston love Fenway Park.  And basketball fans in Philadelphia love the experience of the old Palestra.  But here in Syracuse, the old arena downtown has fallen out of favor.  The War Memorial Arena, once the center for downtown entertainment, has become an afterthought.

The CEO of the OnCenter Complex, Terri Toennies, said she has been doing her best to change the public perception of the arena.  She, probably better than anyone else, knows changes and repairs have to be made on both on a large and small scale.  When asked about something as simple as the restrooms, Toennies expressed concern, “A lot of issues sometimes when we over capacitate to six thousand plus people, we have that many people running, it is kinda tough sometimes to keep all the restrooms from overflowing and having issues,” she said “And that’s bad.”

The main problem: the multiple needs for the arena means the price for repairing the building continues to climb.  The auditorium of the arena needs to be painted, and that costs one hundred thousand dollars.  The glass and dasher system for hockey games is a one hundred and fifty thousand dollar repair.  The zamboni machines for the ice are 16 years old and cost ninety thousand a piece.  The new video scoreboard will cost over seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars.  These projects and the list of others total a budget sheet that reads over twelve million dollars.

Toennies and are her staff have a five year plan to try and turn the place around and fill it with new and exciting events, but they also understand that it is going to take a lot of hard work to get that plan rolling.  County funding is very difficult to come by as it took months to strike a deal for the scoreboard.  So the OnCenter and the Syracuse Crunch, the main users of the arena, need to find other ways to raise funds.  Danielle Goss, the Director of Operations at the War Memorial, while hoping for the legislators to provide chunks of funds, realizes other plans like adding a dollar to each ticket is a more realistic fundraiser.

And the Crunch, while they understand that the arena is old and in desperate need of repair, want to stay in Syracuse.  Last year they signed a ten-year lease to stay and play at the War Memorial that will keep the team in town until at least the end of the 2018-2019 season.  The Vice President of the Crunch Jim Sarosy said it was very important for the Crunch to stay in Syracuse because of the incredible support the team receives.  He said the team is working with the OnCenter to improve the fan experience while at the War Memorial.

Mike DeSumma

SYRACUSE, NY- One month after the doors to her parish sealed, young Reena Tretler joined hands with her fellow parishioners in the shadow of St. Andrew the Apostle Church.

Like many there, she didn’t hesitate to voice her frustration with the Syracuse Diocese’s decision that they would never reopen.

“Out of all the other churches we’ve done so much to help everyone else,” Tretler said, “We’ve done just so much for the neighborhood. I can’t help but feel that this is completely wrong.”

The church, which is located on Alder Street on the city’s south side, is the latest parish to be closed in the diocese’s plans for church consolidation.

The downsizing comes as a result of a number of pitfalls that church leaders are facing due to the rising costs of parish upkeep as well as dwindling numbers of priests and parishioners.

In 2007, Catholic leaders unveiled a plan that would lead to the closure of 40 churches over a period of three years. So far, nearly three quarters of those churches have been shut down and protest from area parishioners have ensued.

St. Andrew’s closed last month and its congregation was merged into that of St. Lucy’s Parish on Gifford Street. Both churches had long been linked and served by a single priest. Leaders in the diocese cited a “one parish, one priest” stipulation as the reason for the closure.

But that didn’t sit well for many longtime parishioners of St. Andrew’s who say that was no reason to sacrifice the vibrancy of their parish, which had a long history of social activism.

“We were a solvent parish with a lot of lay participation,” Estelle Hahn said. “It’s not the hierarchy who is church. It’s the people who are church and to not listen to the people is just unforgivable.”

Modern Day Pitfalls

St. Andrew’s and St. Lucy’s were just one of many pairs of churches sharing a priest.

Linked parishes were set up by the diocese as a means of dealing with the huge drop in men going into the vocation. By next year, it is estimated that only 100 priests will be left in the Syracuse Diocese to serve its well over 200,000 Catholics. That is in stark contrast to the near 400 priests that served in the 1970s.

Coupled with the shortage of priests is a lack of parishioners to fill pews on Sundays—specifically younger Catholics to supplement a mostly aging church body.

Parishioners at other parishes that are currently sharing a priest, like St. John the Baptist on the city’s north side, see these trends as signs of the inevitable: more churches will be closing soon.

“I mean the costs are still there but unfortunately the congregations are smaller and smaller,” said Parish Life member Jerry Mott, “along with the shortage of priests it makes it very difficult for parishes to survive.”

Katie Alexander

Skaneateles, N.Y. —Rose Burtless, head milker at Elmer Richards and Sons Dairy Farm in Skaneateles, said her farm is lucky. She said as a dairy farm, it isn’t as negatively affected by the poor economy as many of the nation’s other industries.
Burtless explains that jobs cannot be cut in dairy farming. There will always be a demand for milk, and the job of caring for dairy cows will never disappear. Burtless said she is optimistic about the financial future of dairy farming.
Yet across the country, the low demand for milk means the profit dairy farmers can receive for their products is shrinking. “Dairy farms are heading into one of their worst years ever,” according to an article in the Syracuse Post-Standard earlier this month.

When we spoke to her, however, Burtless was so confident about the future of dairy farming that she said the people who have lost jobs in the current recession should be looking for jobs on dairy farms –that is, if they can handle the workload.

Burtless describes herself as a jack-of-all trades because she does a little bit of everything on the farm. She’s involved in many aspects of caring for both calves and cows, including vaccinating, ear tagging, and, of course, milking.
When we visited the farm, she was marking cows in heat so the breeder would have an easier time finding them the next day. This system of marking involves using different color paint — green for cows that need to be bred this afternoon, and orange for cows that can wait until tomorrow morning.

Burtless says the gestation period for a cow is nine months, and each cow spends at least 55 days with its calf. She said when it comes to breeding and milking, it’s at least a 305 day cycle from one conception to the next.
As of November, Burtless said Elmer Richards and Sons was doing well, and she was sure she would have a job helping with breeding and milking, among other duties, in the future.