Press Information

From time to time we get a little attention from local newpapers and media outlets. While we are often too busy playing four square to answer the sporadic waves of phone calls and emails, we have carved out this little concession for our friendly press people to get their scoop.

A brief history...
Because you guys always ask, here is the quick story. Sean Effel and Dana Ostberg founded Squarefour in the fall of 2003. Sean and Dana were old camp buddies from their summers at the Becket Chimney Corners YMCA in Becket, MA. Both came from a convoluted background of middle school and summer camp four square play, and found Boston in great deficit of alternative sporting events, and so decided to band together to bring the crazy. As mentioned on NPR's Only A Game broadcast, the two dreamt up the league idea while illegally skinny dipping in a private pond somewhere north of Boston.

Why do we do this?
Running a community oriented sports league is tons of fun and very rewarding in and of itself. We enjoy being the hub of so much activity and interest, and thrive on being the facilitators of adult play.

The league offers two really important things for adults, especially in the boston area. Its really hard to play organized sports in the winter, and this is a great sporting environtment that rides the line between athletic and social. Each of our participants gets involved because they want the activity, or they want to meet interesting people, or its a combination of both. Boston is a difficult place to find both of those things. People are pretty uptight here.

Membership...
Squarefour's goals are to create great competitive and social spaces for folks of all ages to enjoy causual sporting activities. Members approach this league at all different ages and ability, mostly concentrated in the late twenty and early thirty somethings. At any given time, Squarefour is enrolled with 30-40 members.

What does "rejuvenile" mean to us?
While its a neat phenomenon, this trend may be viewed under the wrong lens. We've been playing four square since we were kids, and ultimate frizbee and kickball are all well established institutions, and to think that adults are trying to escape the throes of a post 9/11 american society with playground games is bogus.

What we're seeing is the capacity of the web for little niche operations like four square to organize and generate hype and momentum. The generations of adults who saw the birth of the internet have been using online social applications to do so many things like organizing parties, registering for weddings, etc, its only logical that they may use them to organize their play times as well. And once its on the web, its real and big like never before.

The World Championships of Four Square
This is actually the brain child of Peter Lowell of the Maine Lakes Association in Bridgton, ME. Each winter these crazy folks up in Maine have to dream up exciting things to keep them busy in the cold months when their town drops from a summer population of 30,000 people down to a winter number of about 5000. In the winter of 2004, they chanced on a great tongue-in-cheek event they called the "world champs" of four square. A little research on the web to find local competition lead Peter to Squarefour and together we composed structure and rules that would eventually lead the World Champs on to the institution that it is today.

Great, can I get some photos?
You sure can, take a look at all the links below for photos, flyers, etc.

A nice piece of flyering, even if we do say so ourselves:
http://www.squarefour.org/files/card_front.jpg

Here are a couple of print quality photos licensed to us by photographer Jeff Galusha:
http://www.squarefour.org/press/photo_jeffgalusha1.jpg
http://www.squarefour.org/press/photo_jeffgalusha2.jpg
http://www.squarefour.org/press/photo_jeffgalusha3.jpg
http://www.squarefour.org/press/photo_jeffgalusha4.jpg

We've been published before!
And lastly, we wouldn't have a solid press section if we didn't point to the tons of places that have already given Squarefour some media love.

The Boston Globe:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/07/30/adult_entertainment/

The Boston Phoenix:
http://www.squarefour.org/press/press_bostonphoenix.pdf

NPR's Only A Game with Bill Littlefield:
http://www.onlyagame.org/shows/2004/01/20040124_14.asp

That guy Christopher Nixon notes us:
http://www.rejuvenile.com/playground/

Here are a number of smaller print and electronic publications:
http://www.squarefour.org/press/press_berkshireeagle.pdf
http://www.squarefour.org/press/press_berkshireschool.pdf
http://www.squarefour.org/press/press_northeasternnews.pdf
http://www.squarefour.org/press/press_philadelphiaweeklyonline.pdf
http://www.squarefour.org/press/press_sunjournal.pdf
http://www.theoysteronline.com/03_01_06/foursquare.html

A quick look at the social networks of which we are members:
http://www.myspace.com/four_square
http://www.friendster.com/squarefour