Camp Nebagamon

By Noah Stein

Four square has been a staple at camp for decades. Strolling from the Big House to the Hill, one can almost always find campers playing on one of the Hill’s two courts during free time. From those first games played amidst the excitement of arrival day to daily G-Swim rounds, the fun of four square permeates daily life at Nebagamon. But it’s more than just fun. Four square is a building block of the culture in the Swamper and Logger Villages. Ask any resident of the Hill and they’ll tell you that, while projects and trips are great, nothing would be the same without four square. Since the game is so central to half of our villages, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the game is central to camp. Four square is our identity. 

To ensure our four square games are run safely and fairly, a counselor is always present to serve as line judge and arbiter of all disputes during a game. This counselor is referred to as the “PC” (short for proximity control). 

The PC has a difficult responsibility. You see, our four square rules are rather nuanced, if not convoluted, and, under the watchful eyes of a swarm of 2nd through 6th graders, a single mistake could turn into a critical situation. Too many mistakes and we could have chaos on our hands. 

The PC’s complicated, high-pressure job includes three primary responsibilities:

1. Discerning a two-handed underhand hit from an overhand slam, as the latter is forbidden. Oftentimes it is a fine line between an underhand and overhand and judgment calls based on the most up-to-date rules are required. 
2. Maintaining awareness of the landing spot of a camper’s shoe when they attempt the daring and controversial “Jedi Jump” move: leaping across the court, intercepting the ball, and landing out of bounds. Sounds confusing? It is, and it speaks to the competence and intricate knowledge of the game required of the PC. 
3. Projecting the time it takes from when a camper gets in line to when they enter the game (a cumbersome mathematical process requiring a stopwatch). If the line becomes too long, the counselor needs to quickly call for “slammin’ doubles,” when two players play in each box to keep the line moving.

Those responsibilities are vast, and in recent years we’ve seen more and more PC errors occur, undermining the integrity of the game. Some have predicted that continued PCing errors could lead to a major shift from four square to the ring game as campers’ primary Hill game. This would cause severe congestion in the central Hill area with potential overflow into the box hockey arena next to the Push Shack. Ultimately the situation would be untenable. There would be disorder on the Hill with ripple effects through camp. Further, without a thriving four square culture, who would we be? 

Clearly, this diminishment of accurate PCing is not the fault of the PCs themselves, but rather a function of extremely complicated rules. This winter, to ameliorate the problem of inconsistent PCing, we put together a PC task force, charged with bringing clarity to four square, ensuring the continuity of this cultural centerpiece of camp. The task force laid out clarifications for each of the three primary responsibilities of the PC. These changes will go into effect immediately, beginning upon the arrival of campers on June 18th. 

I want to give everyone a heads up about these rule changes ahead of time so that you all can come into the summer with a sense of relief that the complicated old rules have been done away with and have been replaced with fresh new rules. Here’s what the task force came up with:

• To help clarify the difference between an underhand hit versus an illegal overhand hit, the PC will actually allow overhand hits in certain situations. These situations are as follows:
  • If the ball passes from box A to C and the player in box C moves their feet no more than two steps before hitting the ball.
  • If the ball is served by a player who lives in Swamper 4, and there are no representatives from Swamper 6 currently in the game.
  • If lunch was rubens, and the player in box D did not eat any tater tots.

If none of those criteria are met, overhand hits will remain illegal and the PC can discern underhand from overhand by ensuring that the angle the ball is hit at is less than forty-five degrees, regardless of whether or not the player was attempting to “spin” the ball.

• Jedi Jumps will be deemed illegal…unless…
  • G-snack is frozen Gogurt.
  • The Axemen all make it to breakfast on time.
  • A signed petition of a supermajority of Swampers and a majority of Loggers not on trips is presented in writing to the PC no more than 5 business days ahead of time asking for temporary revocation of the Jedi Jump Clause which will remain in effect for no more than 8 rounds of four square.

When the Jedi Jump is in play, no part of a camper’s shoe may touch the line after they attempt the jump, unless their shoelace is untied and touches the line in which case the jump counts but the Jedi Jumper is also deemed “out” while they tie their shoes. 

• The PC task force understood the complexity of measuring the length of the line and calling for “slammin’ doubles” when appropriate. To ease the challenge, campers will now line up in logarithmic spirals. (Now, I’m really no math expert, but it totally makes sense to me to use this pattern which is actually found in nature, such as in nautilus shells, so it should be pretty simple for campers to line up in such a pattern.) With campers lined up in a logarithmic spiral, PCs should have a much easier time discerning the length of the line.

I’m so grateful for the work of the PC task force in updating our four square rules. These new policies will be simple for all of our campers and PCs to learn and will ensure that four square lives on as the focal point of our Nebaga-identity for generations to come. 

I can’t wait to see the rules take effect this June. Study up on your logarithms!

Oh, and APRIL FOOLS!