If you lived on campus last year, then hopefully you saw them.

If you didn’t see them, then you missed out.

Fortunately for everyone, they’re finally back. After an absence of almost 10 months, this group started back up Thursday.

These people set up camp beside Carroll Hall, engaging in what seems like a unique activity – at least for college students.

It is a group of students playing a game known as four square, and I am proud to say I was a part of it last year and am a part of it this year.

Before you write the sport off as simply a childhood game, you should try it yourself in this new environment called college.

Sure, you may have played it as a kid, but that doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to play it as a young adult.

The game will allow you to be a kid again – to not take yourself so seriously – for a short time.

And what would that hurt?

With classes, jobs, summer internships and social life all pulling at us, sometimes it’s a good idea to just escape from the normal routine and do something out-of-the-ordinary.

That’s exactly what this game will allow you to do, and it’s something new and different you can experience without having to be inebriated.

For one thing, most people are pretty competitive, and this setting certainly feeds that drive.

The game works this way: A player starts in one square. The goal is to hit the ball into another player’s square without them being able to hit it, and if you succeed, they are out. As players in the higher-ranked of the four squares get out and new players rotate in, a player can move up until reaching the top-ranked or ‘king’ square.

For those of you like me, you will take the most pride and joy in spiking the ball on someone when you are in the king square.

But a player can play as well as possible and still be done in by an exquisite hit on the ball by an opponent. Such heart-stopping action will get your blood flowing.

If you choose to be methodical by finding the best way to land the ball in other players’ squares out of their reach, the game will also stimulate you mentally.

When you get to the king spot, you will go first in the round and thereby get to be the first to choose who you want to challenge.

Usually, the best way to ensure getting your desired result is simply to slam the ball very hard either in their square or at their body.

Now, my friends like to call this a cheap shot, but many times it is allowed as a legal move. So when you can, try this. If nothing else, you and your spike victim will both get a good laugh and have even more fun.

If all of these things so far have not been enough to get you excited, then maybe a chance to have celebrity status will.

This status can come either through an awesome nickname within the group or from having your pictures posted on a Web site.

The whole nickname thing, trust me, is a beautiful thing to behold. One player received the alias “Silky Britches” last year simply because of the shorts he wore.

So, if you see these crazy kids either today or when you get back from Spring Break, join them for a few minutes.

It could change your life.

You may actually enjoy yourself while playing a kid’s game.

Now that’s something worth seeing.

Tell Clark whether you will play four square this year at sports@technicianonline.com