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The Indiana Daily Student

student life

'Be there or be square': IU students seek four square participants

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The IU Classifieds advertisement is tucked among reminders of college life and adulthood, caught between Finite textbook listings and summer sublease options.

"Do you love 4 square? 4 + square = a good time," the title reads. Then, a winking emoji.

It's written by two friends who want to play four square but said they realized they don't have at least two other friends. Would anyone want to meet up and play with them?

"Yes, we're serious," the ad reads.


That “we” is Ben Wallace and Teresa Perez, two IU students who recently decided to start an organized effort to play four square in college. 

Wallace, 21, is a senior studying information systems, sustainability and computer science. He’s one of the founders of Code@IU, a club meant for beginners to learn how to code. Perez, 19, is a freshman studying mathematics and computer science. She joined Code@IU last semester, which is how she met Wallace.

“Adulting is frustrating,” Perez texted Wallace one day.

“So don’t grow up,” he responded.

The conversation then became about playing four square when they were kids. Wallace told Perez he had spent a fair amount of “respectable minutes in the king square.” Perez wanted him to prove it. 

Even though the idea of playing four square is silly, the game itself is serious business, they said. For many, the chalk-drawn recess gridiron was the traditional pre-adolescent proving ground.

The rules vary from playground to playground, but the struggle for a player to make something of themselves remains the same: try to get to the highest ranked box, stay there as long as possible and defend your empire from those who would want to undermine you. 

It’s a democratizing sport. Anyone can become king in minutes, only to lose everything with a single fatal bounce of the ball a second later. Players do not need to be particularly athletic or cool or popular — just willing to play.

When Wallace and Perez realized they didn’t have enough people for a full game, they turned to the internet. Neither have large social media followings, so IU Classifieds, a free and online advertisement listing open to those with IU emails, was their best shot. The ad took 20 minutes to write. 

To Wallace and Perez, the world takes itself too seriously, especially as you get older.

“I remember my parents would say, ‘Oh, to be 20 again,’” Wallace said. “I disagree with that. I think 4 or 5 is a prime age.”

Playing four square is a way to combat the world’s seriousness, to get back to that feeling of being a kid again. 

“I think it’s a good way to get more people at IU involved in something that can just be funny and silly,” Perez said.

Wallace said he remembers playing four square at camp when he was 9 years old, a time he calls “a good age.”

“Everyone that was athletic and had good bodies would take their shirt off and they could go in the pool and jump in,” he said. “And then all the fat nerds would just kind of sit around playing Yu-Gi-Oh! or play four square. That was just our thing that we did.”

Even though anyone can play, Wallace and Perez said, it’s still a game of strategy.

Wallace said that like golf, dancing and life, his four square strategy is all in the hips. He plans to position his legs toward one square but serve the ball toward another square instead — no one will ever see it coming. 

“If you really think about it, the hips don’t lie,” he said. “That’s what makes you a champion on the four square court.”

Perez isn’t sharing her strategy, she said. She’s saving it for the game, whenever it happens.

When the weather improves, Wallace and Perez plan to play at Showalter Fountain in the middle of the school week. It’s not a problem if cars drive in the middle of the street, they said. If anything, that adds to the fun. The current plan of action is for players to just yell “CAR!” and get out of the way — the way it was when Wallace and Perez were kids.

They like the fountain for its visibility. Wallace said he wants people to see them playing and start taking pictures.

“God willing, they’ll join us,” he said.

It seems people are interested in joining the game. So far, Wallace and Perez have received emails from 12 potential players.

It was Perez’s idea to set up a separate email account — foursquareIU@gmail.com — to give the enterprise an air of legitimacy. The classifieds ad received a response within minutes, but they’re always looking for more people. Wallace has mentioned it to people in his classes, and Perez pitched playing four square to her entire Calculus III class. 

Wallace said that there’s two types of responses when they tell people they made an IU Classifieds ad. 

“One person would be like, ‘Oh, why would you do that? That’s so weird.’ And then another person would be like, ‘That’s so cool,’” he said. “We want the latter.”

The only trait they’re looking for in players is passion.

“All are welcome,” Perez said.

Once they have the players, they’re ready. They have everything they need.

Wallace bought a multicolored Crayola pack of chalk. He said he’s really liking the sky blue color. He thinks it will pop against the pavement when they start playing. Finding the kickballs was a bit more complicated — a hunt for the best-priced ball sent the pair looking at offerings from Goodwill and Craigslist before Perez found them for $3 each, one black and one red, on clearance at Target. 

If everything goes smoothly, they’ll be playing their first game next weekend. They want to wait for more interested people and see if the weather gets any better. If not, they’ll have to postpone their Showalter Fountain plans and find an indoor venue. The two plan to email potential players with updates and organizing information once they figure it out.

“Be there,” Perez said, “or be square.”

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