Players warming up for the 20th annual Four Square World Championship in Bridgton on April 12. Contributed/Gary Collello

The 20th annual Four Square World Championship was held in Bridgton on Saturday, April 12.

The event, which saw 85 players from as far afield as Montana and North Carolina come to the Lakes Region to compete in the classic playground game, has been held in Bridgton for two decades. About 50 spectators also came to the Bridgton Town Hall to cheer on the players, the most in the history of the competition.

Peter Lowell, lead organizer and founder of the championship, said that, in previous years, they had gotten players from foreign countries such as Canada and Germany, and that people from around the world have reached out to say that they’d like to come and compete in Bridgton. While there was advance registration, Lowell said that it was mainly there to help with deciding the logistics of the day, and many of the players signed up on the day of the competition.

According to the competition’s website, the event was divided into three divisions, one each for men and women age 15 and older, and a mixed-gender division for children age 14 and younger. The divisions were allowed to mix during the first of the championship’s three rounds, but were separated afterward. The serving rules are slightly different for the older and younger players, with adult servers required to have one foot within 6 inches of square four’s back corner, while younger servers are allowed one foot of distance.

The first round, which Lowell described as an “open-scoring round,” saw 10% of each division eliminated, while in the second round, each division was reduced by 20%. While the first two rounds each lasted 30 minutes per group, the final round was an untimed “12 out” tournament, going until all but one player in each division was eliminated by receiving 12 outs.

As the number of players dipped below four, squares two and one would become vacant, leaving the final two of each round to compete in just two squares until the champion was crowned.

Following the competition, eight trophies were given out, one each to the winner and runner-up of each gender in the children’s division, and a junior and senior award for the men’s and women’s divisions, the latter given to players older than 40.

The children’s division was won by Oscar Houghton and Phan Thouret on the boys’ side, and Isabella Gomez-Mancia and Brooke Sullivan on the girls’ side. All four students came from Whitefield Elementary School in Lincoln County, where Lowell said that students had been practicing all year.

In the women’s division, Brittany Dunay, a six-time champion from New York, won the junior trophy, while Anne Lowell of Bridgton won the senior trophy. The junior men’s winner was Joseph Henson, while the senior men’s champion was Eric Costanza of Northbridge, Massachusetts.

Costanza, a three-time reigning champion, nicknamed “The Assassin,” said his fascination with four square dated back to his childhood, when he would play the game with his brother and friends. Costanza said that he has won Northbridge’s local championship five times, and played every now and then with close friends and family as he grew older. His love for the game was rekindled as he was approaching his 40s, when he discovered the world championship in Bridgton.

While his plans were initially delayed by the pandemic, he eventually won his first world championship in 2023, and he had been going up to Bridgton with his family every year since. Costanza said he did not know how he would match up against players from across the United States and beyond, and thought that his first win was very humbling. He said it was a great honor to say that he was a world champion at something, noting that he had become something of a local celebrity in his hometown, where he has been asked to run a children’s summer camp at its new four square court, which was named in his honor.

“It’s just become a real special, honestly magical, type of event that we thoroughly enjoy,” said Costanza of the four square championship.