‘Egg-cellent’ world record set by teen
Local youth overcomes physical and emotional tragedies
BY TARA PETERSEN
Staff Writer

JERRY WOLKOWITZ staff Anthony Napoliello, an Allentown High School senior, concentrates on balancing an egg in his attempt to break a world record Jan. 15.

While some people like their eggs scrambled and others like them sunny-side up, 18-year-old Anthony Napoliello prefers to balance them.

The Allentown High School senior set out Saturday to beat the world record by balancing more than 210 raw eggs at a time on a flat surface. The record was set in 1990 by Kenneth Epperson of Monroe, Ga., according to a listing in the Guinness Book of World Records. Napoliello ultimately doubled that number when he stood 420 eggs vertically on one end in four hours and 20 minutes, placing them independent of one another around the high school atrium floor.

Friends, family and supporters watched closely as Napoliello casually moved around the cold atrium floor on his stomach, with a pillow under his chin, placing each egg along the black tiles as he listened to music from his portable compact disc player, often mouthing the words to a song. Once he found a spot he liked, he dusted the floor briefly, steadied his arms along the ground and concentrated on finding that perfect balance.

“You have to balance the yolk inside the egg — keep it as still as possible and keep it steady,” Napoliello explained.

Though he previously had only balanced 15 eggs because “I ran out of eggs,” he said that he set out to break the world record with no doubt in his mind that he would achieve his goal.

“It seemed so easy,” he said. “It all depends on how the yolk is balanced. It just takes patience.”

That seemed to be his opinion alone, since several observers could soon be found attempting the feat themselves along the room’s periphery — only to discover just how hard it was.

“I got one!” his father’s fiancée, Jennifer Fowler, shouted with excitement after several minutes of trying.

By comparison, Napoliello averaged one egg per 30 seconds.

Napoliello was so confident, he decided to time himself, adding a level of difficulty to anyone entertaining the notion of trying to outdo him later. No time was listed for the current record holder.

If an egg fell over, he was allowed to stand it up again. However, once he decided to stop, all the eggs must remain standing for one minute or more.

Napoliello, who had to have witnesses, press verification and photographic evidence to authenticate the claim, will be sending all the information to Guinness.

His father, Robert, was among the witnesses.

Napoliello had placed the 211th egg within two hours, but decided to keep going.

“It’s amazing. It’s unbelievable,” said Robert Napoliello just after his son broke the record.

“Could I be more proud?” Audrey Ferraro, Anthony’s godmother and aunt, asked rhetorically.

The event went so smoothly for Napoliello that his uncle, Kevin Ferraro, made a last-minute dash to Woody’s Downtown Cafe for an additional 15 dozen eggs, which the establishment donated.

Napoliello’s quest to be listed in the Guinness Book of World Records began during a simple experiment in astronomy class, according to Napoliello’s teacher, Linda Stefaniak.

Every year, Stefaniak asks her students to dispel the popular urban myth stating that it is only possible to balance a raw egg during the spring equinox.

“There is no scientific basis for it — it’s an old wives’ tale,” Stefaniak said of the legend.

Stefaniak said it soon became obvious that Napoliello had a special touch since he had already balanced several eggs while others were still working on one.

He was the first student to try lying on the floor to do it, according to his teacher.

“It was the first time anybody was interested in what the world record was,” Stefaniak added.

She said Napoliello came up with the idea to put the eggs in a pattern on the floor that would leave him access should any fall over.

His father said his son did not seem nervous at all.

“We talked and he said, ‘I’m just gonna give it my best shot,’ ” Robert Napoliello recalled.

This was not the first time young Napoliello has had to overcome adversity.

The active teen was snowboarding in February 2003 when a trail maintenance employee driving a snowmobile hit him head-on and “shattered his leg almost in half,” according to his uncle.

Ferraro explained that Napoliello needed extensive surgeries to attempt to regain use of his leg, which continued to lose muscle mass as swelling cut off the blood flow and the muscles began to die one by one.

“He had seven surgeries, four of which he didn’t know if he was going to come out with a leg on,” Ferraro said.

He went through physical therapy to learn how to use two of the 12 muscles he has left.

This year, against the advice of family and friends, he even tried out for the football team.

“Not only did he make the team,” Ferraro said, “[but] he was the starting wide receiver and scored several touchdowns.”

Napoliello’s determination to succeed despite what life has thrown at him became even more apparent after he and his family suffered the loss of his younger brother, Nicholas.

The boy was just 15 when he took his own life last October.

Napoliello said he was thinking of his brother as he was attempting the world record.

“I basically did this for him,” Anthony said. “It’s one thing I wanted to do in memory of him — and for my other brother, Joseph.”

He said he gets his strength from his family and his girlfriend, Jacqueline Longo.

As for the eggs, Stefaniak said they scrapped the idea of donating them to a soup kitchen since they were unrefrigerated for several hours.

“We’re going to dye them and hollow them out, and fill them with confetti for the Easter bunny breakfast,” she said.

The decoration, according to Stefaniak, is called “cascarones” in Spanish.

“When the kids find them, they make a wish and smash them on people’s heads,” she said.

Napoliello called his attempt at the record “a one-time thing,” saying that he now wants to continue snowboarding, playing the acoustic guitar and concentrating on getting into college.

He would like to major in business management at either East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania or Castleton State College in Castleton, Vt.

Ultimately, he would like to be a real estate agent.

Until then, “I’ll just look around and try to find something else to put my mind to,” he said.