Barnard began playing quidditch in the fall of 2013 at Salisbury University, and very soon found a love for snitching. He saw it as a fun way to help his team by filling their volunteer slots. Throughout his quidditch career, Barnard has played for multiple teams (most recently the BosNYan Bearsharks). This season, he’s snitched against a number of teams and seekers across many events, including Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship, Great Lakes Regional Championship, the UVA Business Bowl, Crescent City Invitational, Oktoberfest Invitational, and the Not East Regional Cup. At his highest level over the years, Barnard has snitched USQ Collegiate Regional Finals, an MLQ Final, and several bracket games for national championships of both leagues.

For newer snitches, Barnard’s advice is a simple three step process. First, for positioning, think of the midline like the bar of a dumbbell. You want to stay in the area that the weights would be primarily, then near the bar when crossing the pitch. Second, you should track where the seekers are coming from and shift your hips and body in a way to avoid taking on both seekers at once, you make your job easier. Finally, learn and use basic grappling skills to physically fight off grab attempts.

Currently in its inaugural season, the Snitch of the Fall and Spring awards are open to all USQ-certified snitches. Recipients are primarily selected based on referee reviews and a nomination form, which include feedback from coaches, peer referees, tournament directors, and players. The number of games a snitch participates in and their overall contributions to the quidditch community as a snitch are also taken into account. All these data points are reviewed by the USQ snitch team in the gameplay department, who then select recipients of this award.