It started as a birthday party game, followed by an auspicious thrift store find --a red bowling ball bag. Then one night after an outing of contra dancing and skinny dipping, Dana Ostberg and her friend Sean Effel came up with an alternative ball to put in that bag: a red rubber playground ball.
Just like that, an indoor four-square league was born.
“We just threw out the idea. You build these ideas and they take on a life of their own,” says Ostberg. The life that idea has taken on has grown from a nostalgic weekend pastime to an obsession for the 28-year-old J.P. resident. Ostberg is not only the founder of a small four square empire, but now a two-time world title-holder of Four Square Champion of the World.
The indoor league she created, Square Four, is now three years old now. It meets every other Sunday, November through April, at the Somerville YMCA. The $40 entry fee gets the 30 or so members a tee shirt and ten weeks of play.
The game is pretty much straight off the playground. Four people duke it out in their numbered squares, vying for the 4 square, from which they can serve and make up rules like left hands only, or jump up and down.
The league, the only one in existence at the time, had won enough renown that in 2004 Ostberg received an email from Peter Lowell of the Lakes Environmental Association in Maine, announcing the World Championship.
Considering he was the host of the tournament, Lowell had some pretty basic questions about the sport. “He was inquiring about scoring. He was kind of looking to us as the experts,” says Ostberg. The four-person team from Boston didn’t know what to expect when they arrived in rural Bridgton in Western Maine. The town hall marquee read “Four Square World Championship Tonight 5 p.m.” But when the group entered the building no one was inside.
Finally, just before 5 p.m., Lowell soon showed up, along with twenty or so friends and relatives. It was awkward at first, negotiating the rules of the game, but pizza –the great equalizer- came at 6:00 easing tensions.
The Maine contingent played with a little blue racquetball, and Square Four demonstrated what came to be known as Boston Big Ball, played in a big square with the classic red gym ball. “We were cautious, they were leaning on us in terms of what we knew,” Ostberg says.
Even playing with the little blue ball, however, Ostberg ended up winning the women’s tournament. “I rose above and surprised myself last year. I just got this bug in my head and there was the potential to be the World Champion. I’m vicious but with spirit.”
This year, as the reigning champ, Ostberg felt more pressure. “People wanted to be me and they wanted to beat me. I mean do you want to be a has-been or a will-be?” Ostberg muses.
The Bridgton Townhall housed the second annual tournament, which included a brand new spin off league from Burlington Vermont. The competition was tense at times, and the wild card finalist really was a wild card. She was one of a group of lost Boston College students on their way home from a ski trip.
The Champ just barely made it into the final round, facing a close call with a nasty girl from the newly established Burlington, Vermont league who “didn’t have any spirit.” It was a wake-up call that made her kick her game up a notch.
The score for the final round was kept secret as the four contenders volleyed, this year with the big ball. When it was all over, Ostberg was again on top. “I was surprised that I had risen, but pleased.”
Despite the glory of being a two-time World Champion, Ostberg is a little afraid of the pressure she might face next year and is considering taking a trip around tournament time.
It is possible to start a four square league, become the world champion and still not know what to do when you grow up. “Life is so full and great, but there are so many things I could do. I feel like I spin. Some times the ambivalence kills you,” says Ostberg.
She has mentored teenagers through Stepping Stone Academy for three years and is applying for a new job running the girls’ program at Bikes Not Bombs, an organization that trains urban youth to become bicycle mechanics. Her latest goal is to become a nurse practitioner.
But the Champ is still thinking about how to get there, how to chose just one thing, and how to overcome a gimpy GPA and a draining work life. If her brief Four Square reign has taught her anything, it’s that with a little sweat, a red ball and some luck you can be the champion of the world you make for yourself.
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It started as a birthday party game, followed by an auspicious thrift store find --a red bowling ball bag. Then one night after an outing of contra dancing and skinny dipping, Dana Ostberg and her friend Sean Effel came up with an alternative ball to put in that bag: a red rubber playground ball.