If everything stacks up the way it should, more than 1,000 young cup-stackers around Floyd County have speed-stacked their way into the Guinness Book of Word Records as part of an annual World Sport Stacking Association effort.

Last year, the WSSA counted 222,560 stackers representing 1,343 schools or organizations around the country, and this year their goal was a quarter-million participants. Officials won’t know for a few days what the official tally is, but if the record is broken, students at Glenwood Primary, Midway Primary and Cave Spring Elementary will count themselves among the 250,000.

“One thing I really like about speed stacking is that it levels the playing field,” said Glenwood physical education teacher Amy Rice, who incorporated the activity into her lesson plans 10 years ago.

Cave Spring PE teacher Jill McLean agreed, saying, “You don’t have to be tall. You don’t have to be small. You don’t have to be in great shape. Anybody can do this and anybody can be good at it.”

What is required is good hand-eye coordination, and Rice said that’s why she made speed-stacking part of her class. She said pre-K and kindergarten students see their patterning skills improve, while older children see benefits in other sports and even playing musical instruments.

Because stackers use both hands, they also use both sides of the brain.

“It has all those benefits,” said Rice. “And the kids really love it.”

That sentiment was seconded by Midway Primary PE teacher Jean Pruitt, who said students in kindergarten through third grade speed-stack cups at her school.

“They all do a really good job with it, and the kids love to cup stack,” said Pruitt.

For Glenwood fifth-grader Ericka Sexton, who has been speed stacking since she was a pre-K student, the competition makes it fun.

“It’s pretty fun playing against other people,” she said.

To be counted in the WSSA record attempt, each student must participate for 30 minutes, stacking cups in a variety of patterns as individuals or teams, against opponents or against the clock. Most of the cups are plastic, but some are metal and weighted so that stackers build their stacking muscles and are much faster with the plastic cups.

On Thursday, about 580 Glenwood students were stacking for the record; about 360 students at Midway were participating; and Cave Spring added about 115 stackers to the total count.

The WSSA is tracking the number of participants as they come in online at http://worldsportstacking­

association.org, and a final count should be revealed within a few days.

In January, the 2010 WSSA Southeast Regional Sport Stacking Championships are scheduled at The Forum in Rome. The event, planned for Jan. 30 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., is expected to draw stackers from all around the Southeast.