It’s Saturday at the Auburn High School gym and the sound is deafening.

In the lobby of the gym, several tables are filled with boys and girls of all ages, from kindergarten to high school, all focused intently on the 12 plastic cups sitting on the tables in front of them.

With rapid-fire motions they stack and unstack the cups, the click of plastic on plastic creating a background din as the tumblers are assembled and reassembled in various formations. Hands quickly slap timers to record the seconds as the competitors prepare for the main event inside the gym proper.

On the hardwood inside the gym there are more tables, more cups and more kids. Aside from a few practice tables in the middle of the court – last chances to grab some practice before competition – these tables are the real deal, the actual competition tables where the stackers ply their skills in front of judges and spectators.

In the middle of the chaos John Ansotigue, organizer of the Northwest Regional Sport Stacking Championships, is a blur, microphone in his back pocket as he moves from the results table to the competition tables, announcing awards and making sure each of the 260 stackers are where they are supposed to be and ensuring everyone receives the right ribbon, medal or trophy.

Ansotigue, a music and physical education teacher at Evergreen Heights Elementary School in Auburn, first stumbled onto cup stacking more than 15 years ago.

“In 1994, I went to a PE conference and I saw this,” he said. “And I thought, ‘What a great tool to teach kids how to use both hands.’”

Ansotigue said he immediately recognized the benefits of cup stacking, where participants use both hands to stack and unstack 12 plastic tumblers in the shortest amount of time possible.

“I thought, ‘What a neat thing to bring back to my classes,’” he said.

Ansotigue soon had the students in his PE and music classes stacking, building skills such as ambidexterity and stimulating synapses in both sides of their growing brains.

It wasn’t until 2001, however, that Ansotigue began hosting competitions.

“In 2001, another teacher came up to me and asked if I had heard of stacking,” he said.

Inspired by the increased interest in stacking, Ansotigue begin working with Bob Fox, one of the men responsible for the popularity of the sport and the owner of Speed Stacks, the company that manufactures the 3½-inch plastic cups, timers and mats used in the activity.

Soon, Ansotigue was recruited to start running tournaments.

“In 2005, we started tournaments,” he said. “That first year it was an Auburn School District-only tourney. There were 120 stackers. We did that and they (Fox and the World Sport Stacking Association) came back and said, ‘OK, you’ve already done a tourney, how about a state tourney?’ So I thought, ‘OK.’ And we had 150 kids come from all over the state.”

According to Ansotigue, he soon found himself stepping up to organizing the WSSA Northwest regional competition, precursor to the national championships the organization hosts each April in Colorado.

“We jumped up to 250 stackers from all over the Northwest – Washington, Oregon and Idaho,” he said. “Then in 2008, we had over 400 stackers. Last year, we packed 1,200 people into that gym. It was overwhelming how many people came.”

This year, Ansotigue said attendance was down, with a mere 260 competitors.

“I think it was down because of the economy,” he said.

But still they came.

Angie Atkinson, coach of the Hazen High School team from Renton for the past four years, was on hand this year guiding her world-record holding team.

“We have nine world records,” Atkinson said.

The past two years the Hazen team has competed at the world championships, which draws competitors from as far away as Europe, Australia and Japan.

“Because of the economy, we can’t afford to go this year,” Atkinson said. “I’ve got a couple of students who are flying themselves out. But we’re not all able to go.”

Atkinson, like Ansotigue, sees beyond the simple thrill of competition and knows the real gift that the sport brings.

“Stacking works both sides of their brain,” she said. “As a classroom teacher I’ve noticed a tremendous increase in their ability to focus. It’s also been a great way to promote teamwork and build up their self-esteem.

“Many of the kids would not be in other sports,” Atkinson added. “Some have heart conditions where they aren’t able to run, or they’ve had a head injury and aren’t able to play football. This is something anybody can do regardless of size and ability.”

“The benefit for them is they are developing hand-eye coordination and ambidexterity,” Ansotigue said. “It’s triggering left and right brain functions because you’re crossing over your hands. The brain is learning how to pattern by doing it. And that’s the basis for all learning.”

The boost in self-confidence that some kids get by finding success at the sport is also helpful Ansotigue said.

“It’s also great for special education kids,” he said. “In Hazen, the kids are so motivated they haven’t had any late homework in two years, because they have to have their homework in to stack.”

Ansotigue said he introduced the sport to Hazen kids at a picnic a few years ago.

“Those kids are my showcase,” he said. “The bottom line is that these kids are living the same high school life as any other athlete from the football or basketball teams. All of sudden these kids are world renown. The cheerleaders are making signs for them and they’re hosting pep rallies. All of sudden these kids have self-esteem and they’re recognized.”

There might be benefits aside from the actual act of competing, but for most of the kids, it’s simply about how fast they can stack.

“I like the competition, because you get medals,” said Michael Pena, a member of one of the teams from Auburn’s Pioneer Elementary.

Pena, along with teammates Ruby Vergara, Beatriz Rodriguez, Dani Hutson, Reanna King and Elvie Santiago, competed in the team relay competition, which they won.

“It’s just fun,” Santiago added.

Erica Cunningham first learned how to stack as a third-grader at Pioneer Elementary School. Now a seventh-grade student at Olympic Middle School, Cunningham still returns to compete with the Pioneer teams.

“I like the attention of all the people watching you,” she said. “It makes you want to do your best.”

In 2007, Cunningham was the state champion.

She had some simple advice for anyone interested in trying stacking.

“I would tell them to buy some cups to stack and just do it,” Cunningham said.