Photograph by Frank Di Piazza
Yo-yo master Kevin Eulalia is in it to spin it this month
By Maud Kelly
Wanna know how to do a laceration? (It’s not what you think.) Snap your yo-yo superfast, whip the string around the thing while it’s in the air, catch the string with your other hand and land the yo-yo on it. Got it? No? Don’t feel bad—it’s a tough move. Kevin Eulalia, 14, “the laceration master of all time,” according to friends Aron Bendet and Jacob Monash, has practiced it for years.
They, and Eulalia, bind, grind and, yes, lacerate on the main stage at the City Museum for four hours every Saturday. They are Team MoYo, and with the state yo-yo championship coming up on April 26, the pressure is on.
MoYo founder Christopher Myers organized this year’s competition. Yo-yoers from as far away as New York will come to compete, and Eulalia is the team’s big hope. At last year’s tournament, he ranked number one in Missouri. His closest competitor is Ian Cole, a 16-year-old from St. Charles who placed number one in a separate, off-string division, but whose point spread put him a hair behind Eulalia in the overall contest.
Eulalia—who practices well over an hour a day, burns through three strings a day and bears a scar on his left cheek from his early yo-yo days—is not afraid. He wraps the yo-yo around his back, flicks it away from himself, runs it up his arm and says with a shrug, “I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve, some moves I haven’t done at the club yet.”
