"Some describe it as upside-down juggling, but Breanne Moliner, a fourth-grader at a Johnstown Elementary school refers to it as just plain fun. It is sport stacking, one of the newest alternative sports to hit Colorado and it has hooked gym classes in Johnstown/Milliken elementary schools. Stacking requires students to create and tear down pyramids of all sizes with special plastic cups. Proponents like Mike Pappas, physical education teacher in Johnstown, says the sport forces students to use both sides of their bodies and brains to develop hand-eye coordination, focus and quickness.

"The first time I heard about it, I thought it sounded bizarre," said Pappas, who teaches stacking in his gym classes at Letford Elementary in Johnstown. "But this is something to help their right and left hand coordination and it forces them to use their non-dominant hand."

On Monday, 22 neat piles of cups sat in the Letford gym as fourth-grade students raced in to try their hands a second time this year at the new sport. To incorporate more fitness into the activity, Pappas often has his students do jumping jacks or several pushups after they complete a stacking activity, While the sport started in Oceanside, Calif., 20 years ago, it is becoming more commonplace in Colorado schools. Most of its recent popularity can be attributed to Bob Fox, a Castle Rock resident and teacher Fox first watched stacking on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show in 1990. When he offered it as an after school activity; 200 students showed up. In the six years since, Fox has created a mini-empire, organizing regional competitions involving hundreds of students and selling "Speed Stacks," colorful plastic cups. He has also introduced the sport in almost 50 states."You do not have to be the biggest or the strongest student like you do in traditional sports," Fox said. "It is really growing. In the next three to four years, I bet stacking will be a household term like, basketball."

For now, it is a novelty for Letford students who squeal and smile every time they finish a new pyramid. While some enjoy the friendly competition, others like practicing their skills in a low-risk activity that enables players of all abilities to practice alongside one another.

"It is pretty fun," said Leah Johnson. "In races, it does not matter if I win or lose or if I mess up. It is not life or death."

It may not be life or death, but some students hope to take their stacking abilities farther than the confines of the Letford gym. Watching Emily Fox, one of the world's fastest stackers, compete her stacking activity in 8.2 seconds filled some students with awe. Emily is Bob Fox's daughter. Others discovered their first role model in a sport only known in a handful of circles. "I think if I could practice at home every night, I could be as fast as the girl," said an eager and accomplished cupstacker Amber Thompson, who is in the fourth grade."

www.speedstacks.com

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