Cup stacking gold medalist, 11, showcases skills in Marblehead

MARBLEHEAD - Championship caliber cup stacking is all about the speed and that is exactly what gold medalist Dominic Pappagallo loves most about it.

“It’s fast,” he said.

Pappagallo, of Youngstown, might just be the best 11-year-old sport stacker in the United States and on Saturday he visited the Marblehead Peninsula Branch Library, where he demonstrated his skills and showed local children how much fun the sport can be.

Pappagallo has only been stacking cups for a couple years after being introduced to the basics in an elementary gym class. Taking some stacking cups home, he taught himself to get faster by watching videos on the internet.

“He got on YouTube and a whole world of cup stacking opened up to him,” said Tim Pappagallo, Dominic’s father. “At the time, my wife and I knew nothing about it.”

Tim said he and Dominic were watching a live championship before the Super Bowl, when Dominic stopped to say that he was capable of faster times than what they were seeing.

Tim asked Dominic to show him and, sure enough, he was faster.

Two weeks later, Dominic was in his first World Sport Stacking Association sanctioned tournament, where he swept first for his age group of 9-10, at the time, and placed 10th overall.

Last month, he competed in the AAU Junior Olympic Games in Des Moines, Iowa.

There, he again finished in first place in his age group, earning gold medals in the all-around, 3-3-3, 3-6-3.

The numbers for the events correspond to the sequence of pyramids the cups are stacked into.

Dominic and other high-level stackers make it look easy, but it is a lot more difficult than it seems, and the pressure of a major tournament can make it even harder.

“At first I kept messing up, so I just went slow,” Dominic said. “Now, I’m used to all the pressure and all the people. They’re all screaming.”

The speed at competitions gets so fast that the tiniest slip-ups can send cups flying, which happens at tournaments frequently. The key is perseverance and consistency.

“The stackers — they have a positive attitude,” Tim said. “I’ve never come across one that says ‘I can’t do this.’ If they mess up, they just keep on going, keep on practicing and trying to get better.”

Tim said the sport takes a lot of focus and concentration, sharpening skills he has seen Dominic take advantage of in the classroom as well.

“It’s helped him in school, staying focused,” he said. “When there’s a big test coming up, he doesn’t get so nervous anymore.”

jstinchcom@gannett.com

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Twitter: @JonDBN