Students bring back 4-Square

For many students, games like red rover and tag were left on the playground a long time ago. But… For many students, games like red rover and tag were left on the playground a long time ago. But for members of Pitt’s 4-Square Club this is far from the truth. ‘Just come to play for 10 minutes,’ said Phil Thomas, the club’s president, while trying to encourage potential new members to join in last Monday’s meeting by offering them free Little Hug juice drinks. The club has no membership requirements and allows all University students to join. The organization encourages its members to incur school spirit in a physically and socially active setting, according to the club’s mission statement. Thomas said the first proposition for the club started in 2004 when Justin Keogh, who was a Pitt student at the time, got a strange idea. After four hours of work one day, he created a constitution for the 4-Square Club and urged his friends to be the first members. ‘Things have just escalated since then,’ said Thomas. The group now has 200 active members. Meetings primarily take place on Posvar Hall’s patio, but the game can be played on any flat surface where four squares can be formed, according to the 4-Square rulebook. The squares are numbered one through four, and the game begins with a pass from the player in the fourth square, often referred to as the king, to the player occupying the second. Though four players can only be in action at one time, once one player goes out, another player takes the open spot inside of square one. Many games occur simultaneously during the course of one single meeting so everyone can participate, said Thomas. ‘ ‘The server can make up any rule they want at the beginning of a game,’ said Thomas. ‘If the server says ‘anything goes,’ it means just that. Some meetings we spend all night trying to hit the patio ceiling.’ No one’s been able to do that yet this semester, said Thomas. The club members all have unique rules to bring to the game when it’s their turn to serve the ball. Pitt student Jason Bennett favors the ‘Justin Rule.’ ‘You stretch out your dominant arm in front of you and then wrap your non-dominant arm underneath to bring your non-dominant hand up over your face,’ said Bennett. The mask-like technique impairs the player’s vision and disables the movement of both arms, making it difficult to hit the ball, let alone see it coming. Bennett said the group always has a first-aid kit available at meetings in case a technique goes wrong. But he said he doesn’t think anyone’s ever had to use it. He added that other medical resources are in close proximity if anyone got seriously injured. Bennett holds the title of club officer and the important duty of keeping the Little Hug juice drinks safe throughout the year. ‘At the beginning of the fall semester I have about 4,180 Hugs in my basement,’ said Bennett, who one day turned the large amount of Hugs into a life-sized fort that still stands today. The club has an agreement with the company to get free Little Hugs, which are distributed during regular meetings. The group takes part in tournaments and other events throughout the year. It receives funding from a mini-grant that allows it to have an alcohol-free event inside of the Schenley Quad, and it collaborates with St. Jude’s Church to put on a 4-Square tournament for charity. The club has not only grown in members, but also it has an ongoing Vision List, according to Thomas. The list includes possible events or even ideals for the game. Some items have been on the list since the first year. Flaming 4-Square, which involves playing 4-Square in an environment made of fire, is just one of the ideas that makes the list. ‘This is a guaranteed thing that we would need waivers for,’ said Thomas. ‘I am not sure that I feel totally comfortable about that.’ Regular meetings take place Monday nights from 7 to 9:30 p.m, weather permitting. If the group gets enough support, it will have meetings during the winter inside of the Fitzgerald Field House.