Mike McCoy was introduced to sport stacking at a friend’s house about three years ago and he was immediately taken to it, even if it didn’t come easily.
“It was fun, but I was really bad,” McCoy said.
McCoy, of Pearl River, changed that. He decided he wanted to continue playing the sport, so he bought his own set of speed stacker cups and started playing around on his own.
“I went to my first competition a few months after starting,” McCoy said. “I actually won that one, but there weren’t that many people there.”
McCoy kept practicing and on Dec. 3 of last year, McCoy, 15, set the world record for sport stacking individual cycle. His time of 5.91 seconds beat the previous record of 5.93 seconds, which had been standing for a little less than three years. He beat the record at the fourth annual Connecticut State Sport Stacking Championships in Baltic.
“It feels pretty awesome, I still can’t believe I beat it,” he said of the record.
Along with his world record, McCoy owns the New York state records for stacking in the 3-3-3 and 3-6-3 competitions. He also has the state record for doubles along with Steven Purugganan, coincidentally the stacker whose individual cycle world record McCoy beat last December.
Sport stacking is a competition in which the person stacks and unstacks 12 plastic cups as fast as possible. There are a few different styles. The 3-3-3 uses just nine cups, and requires the stacking and unstacking of three pyramids each using three cups. The 3-6-3 is the same, except the middle pyramid has six cups. The individual cycle has the stacker build the 3-6-3 style pyramids, break them down, build two pyramids of six cups each, break those down, build a pyramid using 10 cups and break it down using the two leftover cups.
McCoy’s sport stacking has taken him to competitions in Rochester, Dallas, Denver, Philadelphia and Connecticut. The next World Championships will be held in Butzbach, Germany April 14 and 15. McCoy said he hopes he’ll get to attend.
He’s been a member of Team USA since last January, when after performing well at a competition, he was contacted by the team and asked if he’d like to join. He did, and said to maintain being on the team he has to send in a sheet monthly with practice times.
McCoy, a sophomore at Pearl River High School, said he plans to keep competing in sport stacking.
“It’s fun,” he said. “I just want to keep doing it.”
He also thinks he’s got a shot at beating his own world record.
“If I practice enough, I probably could beat it again, but I’m sure someone else will probably beat it before I do,” he said.
Outside of sport stacking, McCoy said he plays recreational soccer, his favorite subject in school is social studies and he likes playing Xbox, specifically “Call of Duty” and racing games.
