2 weeks Ago
Four Square competitors play in the championship round in 2024 at the Bridgton Recreation Department. The 2025 championships are being held Saturday, April 5, in Bridgton. Four Square World Championships BRIDGTON — Competitors from across the country and beyond sporting names like “The Assassin” and “Tiger Claw” will flood into this small town this week for a competition that takes a low-intensity childhood playground game to a whole new level: the Four Square World Championships.
Kicking off at 5 p.m. Saturday at Bridgton Town Hall, the championships began in 2005 when local resident Peter Lowell, along with the Boston Four Square club Squarefour, launched the event to raise funds for the local Lakes Environmental Association.
But what started as a small gathering of like-minded individuals has since blossomed into an internationally recognized competition, attracting top-tier players and enthusiastic fans alike. For Eric Costanza, a seasoned competitor known in the Four Square community as “The Assassin,” the championships are a significant part of his competitive journey. The 43-year-old Northbridge, Massachusetts, man stumbled upon the world championships online in his late 30s.
He began competing in the event a couple years before the pandemic and nearly had to skip the event’s return in 2023. “The event fell on the same day as my oldest daughter’s junior prom,” Costanza said. “I had every intention of skipping it, but she insisted I go — on one condition: ‘You have to win.
’” And win “The Assassin” did. “That victory wasn’t just for me — it was for my daughter, my family, and the community that supported me,” Costanza said, adding that his three children have also been inspired to get involved. “In 2024, my son CJ .
. . (and I) played constantly, even in our garage during the winter.
” CJ said competing that year was “one of the best experiences of his life.” 2023 Four Square World Champion and 2024 Senior Division champion Eric “The Assassin” Costanza will return to Bridgton Saturday in search of another title. Eric Costanza photo Daniel Richmond, 38, of Houston, Texas, a competitor who’s been coming to the championships since 2023, said the journey into the competitive Four Square scene began with childhood summers.
“I started playing the summer before fifth grade,” Richmond said. “I went to a sleepaway camp at University of Virginia’s summer enrichment program, and it was incredibly popular there. Anytime there was downtime, there were people playing Four Square.
I went to that camp every summer for seven years and then was a counselor there for two years where I got to play for seven weeks straight each summer! I never played outside of that. Literally, maybe twice.” Though Richmond didn’t start competing until later, he discovered the championships in 2011.
“I learned about the world championships just by googling ‘Four Square’ to see if my memories of it were some kind of hallucination,” he said. He had planned to compete in 2020 or 2021, but travel difficulties and the pandemic delayed his first chance. This year, Richmond plans on flying to Boston Friday, driving up to Maine Saturday and then driving back to Boston Sunday to catch an afternoon flight home.
“I’m so looking forward to it. That’s not sarcasm! I’m really excited,” Richmond said. “For me, the most rewarding part is competing.
To paraphrase Lumière from ‘Beauty and the Beast’: ‘Ten years I was rusting, needing so much more than dusting, needing exercise! A chance to use my skills!'” Gary Colello, Bridgton’s director of recreation, has been involved with the championships for three years, since the event was passed to the town from the Lakes Environmental Association. “I didn’t realize how intense it really is and how seriously they take it,” Colello said. “It’s a great opportunity for people to have an alternate sport competition.
” Colello also shared his excitement about the potential for future growth and a return to the national spotlight. ESPN Ocho covered the event in 2010. Reporter Maria Burns Ortiz interviewed then-world champion Christian Housh, better known in the community as “Tiger Claw.
” The Four Square World Championships kick off at 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 5 in Bridgton.
Four Square World Championships “I can’t say I ever had any dreams of being a Four Square champion until I found out about the world championships of Four Square,” Housh told Ortiz. “Then the dream came alive.” Boston Squarefour Club co-founder Sean Effel told ESPN in 2010 that claiming the world championships event earned organizers a little ribbing from the international community.
“When you start to announce that you have a world championships, suddenly people from all over the world are like, ‘Whoa, how come you didn’t invite us from Australia? We play a lot of it,'” Effel told Ortiz. “Or people from the UK say, ‘We play it all the time, why didn’t you invite us?’” Effel said a group that came from Newfoundland a few years prior said the rules, a point of contention as they often differ from schoolyard to schoolyard, weren’t right. The game itself may seem simple on the surface, but its rules and competition can be intense, Costanza said.
The main goal is to be the last player standing in square four. The large court is divided into four smaller squares, with the player in square four serving the ball. Points are scored by outmaneuvering opponents and making sure they commit a foul.
Fouls can include allowing the ball to bounce twice in your square, hitting the lines, catching or throwing the ball, or hitting the ball out of bounds. Players who commit fouls are sent to the back of the line, and the objective is to climb to square four and stay there for as long as possible. “The gym walls at the championships are like the outfield walls in baseball,” Costanza said.
“The ball is still live if it bounces off of them.” And these world championships are open to anyone: For $10, you can register at bridgtonmaine.org/bridgton-recreation/ .
Players compete in the 2024 Four Square World Championships at the Bridgton Recreation Department. The 2025 championships are being held Saturday, April 5, in Bridgton. Four Square World Championships Colello said he has high hopes to see a return to ESPN Ocho in the future as the championships have evolved into something much more than a casual event.
“One challenge is that we have to produce the footage ourselves and submit it to them . . .
so we’re trying to get some TV production involved,” Colello said. “Just a small local recording so we can keep building it up and making it more popular.” While the road to making this event a larger spectacle is still in progress, the enthusiasm is palpable.
Last year, around 50 competitors participated, and the numbers are growing every year, organizers said. “We have a few people coming in from all over the country, and registration is coming in fast,” Colello said, adding that registration will be open until just a few hours before the event starts. The championships offer not just a distinctive athletic challenge, but also a sense of camaraderie among participants.
“The competition is about skill, but also about having fun,” Richmond said. “Nobody likes the person who utterly dominates and is mean about it. You’re good, but friendly — that’s what it’s all about.
” For everyone involved, whether it’s the organizers, the competitors, or the fans, the Four Square World Championships are a chance to celebrate the simple joy of the game — and perhaps, to make a lasting memory or two along the way. “The fact that this quirky childhood game has become something we share as a family, creating these once-in-a-lifetime moments together, is truly magical,” Costanza said. Comments are not available on this story.
Read more about why we allow commenting on some stories and not on others. We believe it’s important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way.
It’s a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others. We do not enable comments on everything — exceptions include most crime stories, and coverage involving personal tragedy or sensitive issues that invite personal attacks instead of thoughtful discussion. You can read more here about our commenting policy and terms of use .
More information is also found on our FAQs . Show less Send questions/comments to the editors..
