Working with Donovan Elementary PTO, Davis not only created a Sport Stacking club that has 15 members, he’s organized a regional tournament at the school.
Davis, along with Meredyth Moore, a physical education teacher in Springboro, have created the tournament, which will be held from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday in the Donovan gym.
More than 75 stackers are expected to compete in the sanctioned event where participants have the opportunity to break state, national or international records. Davis says that some are coming from as far as New York and New Jersey, and one collegiate team is coming from Youngstown.
“We probably will see a state record set, and it’s possible we could see a national record set,” Davis says.
In sport stacking, participants use hand-eye coordination to quickly stack and unstack a series of lightweight cups into predetermined patterns.
The sheer speed and dexterity of some participants are incredulous to watch. Davis says, “It’s wicked fast.”
Judges often have to review videotapes in slow motion in order to verify the time and to make sure no fouls were committed.
Davis also says the sport is beneficial to the brain. Sport stacking forces both sides of their brain to work together and various studies on it have shown it improves hand-eye coordination, reading and concentration, and over-all cognition, according to Davis
The WSSA tournament in Lebanon is open to all ages, and has divisions from ages three-and-under to 60-plus. Davis says most world records are set by nine or 10 year olds and that most players peak between the ages of 10 and 13.
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