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Photos and text by John Pendygraft
 
For the Bartow High School quidditch team, the divide between fantasy and reality is brutal. 
 
Unlike Harry Potter, they are not encouraged by a stadium of cheering wizards in awe of their broomsmanship. There is no hero’s welcome for the victors. Playing on the football field was never an option, and the ultimate Frisbee team kicked them off the band practice field. Now they play on a lopsided drainage patch next to a retention pond in back of the school. After the first bloody nose, their muggle instructor decreed that brooms were too dangerous to be used in the game at all. 
 
“They call us the nerd squad,” said red team captain Dorothy Kleissler, 17. “They joke that IB students think they can fly.”
 
So they put on wizard capes and goggles, and run around pretending to fly on invisible brooms. A group of students in JROTC uniforms stops to watch. They are laughing. One picks up a small rock and throws it at the quidditch patch, secure in the fact that if it hits someone on the field, no one will do anything about it. It lands harmlessly, and they go on their Slytherin way.
 
They don’t see the magic.  They don’t know that fairy tales can be ridiculous on the outside but true on the inside.
 
Consider the advice of this geek squad’s matriarch, J.K. Rowling, at a Harvard commencement speech in 2008.  “One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.”
 
So why are fairy tales told and retold for hundreds of years? What is it about Harry Potter?  “It’s really about the things we connect to, things that make us a hero,” says goalie Caroline Bresnan, 18. “How we deal with bullies, the loss of a loved one, first romance, relationships with friends.”
 
It’s about growing up, they say. Harry is a role model. The adventure becomes their own.
 
“Pablo Picasso says art is a lie that brings us closer to the truth,” pipes in blue team captain Katy Piotrowski, 17.
 
“I think art, especially literature, lasts because it is about finding truth in ourselves. That’s why parents still read fairy tales to their children at night.”
 
And even children know that brooms are not what make us fly.
 

Nicole Radivilov, 16 ... Read more

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The Youth Olympic Games are taking place in Singapore from August 14 - August 26.

According to the Youth Olympic Games website: The Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games will receive some 5,000 athletes and officials from the 205 National Olympic Committees (NOCs), along with estimated 1200 media representatives, 20,000 local and international volunteers, and more than 370,000 spectators. Young athletes - aged between 14 and 18 years - will compete in 26 sports and take part in Culture and Education Program.

The Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games aims to inspire youth around the world to embrace, embody and express the Olympic values of Excellence, Friendship and Respect. It will create a lasting sports, culture and education legacy for Singapore and youths from around the world, as well as enhance and elevate the sporting culture locally and regionally.

Visit the Youth Olympics website for more information.

Fireworks explode over Mariana Bay during the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympics closing ceremony on August 26, 2010 in Singapore. (Photo by Adam Pretty/Getty Images) ... Read more

The iconic bicycle race includes a total of 20 stages and covers 3,642 km before concluding in Paris on July 25.

The pack climbs towards Colombiere pass during the 9th stage of the Tour de France on Tuesday, July 13, 2010.. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena) ... Read more

Landon Donovan of the United States celebrates after scoring the winning goal against Algeria, sending the USA to the second round of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa on Wednesday, June 23. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images) ... Read more