The Campbell Reporter

Education

Students go for Guinness record in widely popular 'stacking sport'

By Laura Rheinheimer

The sound of scampering feet and clanking plastic cups filled the activity room at Campbell Christian School as students went for the one-day record in the "world's largest sport stacking" event.

The sport stacking day will be included as a first-time record in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Sport stacking involves building and breaking down pyramids of specially designed plastic cups, and can be done at any grade level. Around 200 students, from kindergarten through fifth grade, participated in cup-stacking history. The students at Campbell Christian joined more than 79,000 students from 366 schools around the world to accomplish this feat.

"It's really fun and exciting," said Courtney Spoutz, a fifth-grader who can stack cups while arched over backward in a bridge position.

Third-grader Parker Andrews has his own trick. He stacks cups upside-down, which would normally be right side up, which is harder because the cups fall into one another.

Parents and teachers, who helped organize the day's activities, said the students love it. The event helps build hand-eye coordination, said Cheryl Ruby, who runs the physical education program at the school.

"It's amazing how fast they are, and what they can do," Ruby said.

One game, called stackers and blasters, had children running around the room stacking and unstacking piles of cups. One team builds pyramids of cups, while the other team breaks them down, and when the music stops, the team with the highest number wins.

Sport stacking has become quite popular at the school, said Melissa Sisson, the school's vice principal. The school doesn't have a gymnasium, so during the winter, students engage in indoor activities that include sport stacking.

Sisson sees more than physical benefits, since it helps with reading and math skills by engaging the students in left-to-right stacking.

This is the third year the school has used cup-stacking as part of the physical education program. Each year, students contend for top spots in different categories such as stacking blindfolded or with a buddy.

Third-grader Daniel Judkins earned a medal last year for "the cycle," where he stacks cups in a specific sequence. He builds six pyramids, stacking and breaking them down in less than 14 seconds. Like many other students, the 8-year-old has his own set of cups at home and looks forward to the "stack-off" on Jan. 18.

Ruby first encountered sport stacking at a conference, and brought back a loaner set to try it out at the school.

"I thought, 'This is the most fun thing I've ever seen,' " Ruby said, and the students agreed.