'Leila-mania' unleashed by Brazilian
star
LEILA BARROS was 15 when she realized that she had a gift for volleyball.
"I could outjump everyone," said the mercurial Brazilian start during an interview Sunday night a few hours after her team dumped favorite Cuba in the final of the Manila leg of the World Grand Prix Women's Volleyball championship.
"I don't know why I could jump that high, but it's just there, a gift from God," she said.
Barros, 28, took sports crazy Filipinos to the height of ecstasy with a
spectacular display of attacking volleyball which she executes with a mind-bending
levitation that perplexes foes and excites fans.
"She's the female Michael Jordan," gushed a Barros fanatic who could not seem to have enough of the Brazilian beauty as he watched all three games of the series and got enough of her autograph to open a mini-industry.
Indeed, no female athlete had captured the local imagination like Barros, who combined good looks and exquisite skill and touch to create an army of instant admirers, some of whom brought posters shouting "Leila, will you marry me?" or "Barros para presidente."
Told of the posters, Leila laughed and said yes, she had seen them. "I just hope my husband did not because he might not allow me to play volleyball."
Leila, married for three years but with no children, is also attached to volleyball where her passion for the game is, well, matched by her affection for her husband.
For now, however in the thick of competition, there's still the finals to be played in China, it's volleyball for her and domestic bliss can wait.
It's a poser for psychologists to fathom how a 5-8, short-haired athlete could instantly charm Filipinos who stamped their feet, shouted in glee and clapped heartily at every Barros move. She probably would do the most common thing, like perhaps, pick up the towel and wipe her perspiration, and pandemonium would break loose.
"I thought I'd never see it in my lifetime, a woman athlete being mobbed for autographs," said sports commissioner Tisha Abundo, herself a former star player of the national volleyball team.
When Barros was asked if she has ever seen such adulation in her life, she said "Yes," matter-of-factly.
She said she's been mobbed in Thailand, Taipei and just about everywhere she goes, including Brazil where volleyball may not be the top sport, but it's second in popularity behind football.
So she's not at all surprised at the way she had pulled the crowd to her side and to her team.
Charm and beauty, however, can only bring one so much. Maurizia Cacciatori of Italy has movie-star looks. She is mobbed but not adored by fans.
What makes Leila a perfect role model is her unbending will to win every game and the cerebral way she handles a situation that requires split-second decision-making.
"I have never seen one play so intelligently," said Louie Gepuela, the
Philippine Amateur Volleyball Association president who has spent nearly
20 years as a coach.
She would smash the ball with the might of thunder or toss it over the outstretched hands of defenders with the softness of feather. Each time, she would bring the crowd to its feet.
She's the smallest [sic] in the team with nearly all players standing over 6 feet. But she's the most effective and the dynamo that drives the team to glory.
She said she had a wonderful stay in the country and would love to be back.
She, however, laughed and said no to suggestions that she stay behind to make a movie and be assured of earning more than what she probably would earn in a year.
"No, no, no. I'm not a movie star. I'm a volleyball player," she told Benny Gopez, the PAVA chairman who told her he can get a consortium to finance a film.
She said teamwork made Brazil triumph over Cuba. But there's also one other factor.
"We played with nothing to lose," she said, explaining that Brazil, with its past victories in other legs of the Grand Prix circuit in Macau, had earned enough points to qualify for next week's finals in China.
Cuba, on the other hand, had to win to get into the final. So the game was more important to them than to Brazil.
Leila said it was the importance of the outcome that made the Cubans play tentatively.
"They were nervous, they wanted to win so badly. On the other hand, we were relaxed."
A volleyball player's life is not easy, she said.
She works out everyday and the team practices 4-6 hours.
Asked what advice she would give to Filipinos aspiring to be like her, she said:
"Work hard. There's no shortcut
to success. One has to put his or her life into the game. You just don't
say I want to be a volleyball player. You have to work and practice hard
to realize your dream."
Text adapted from The Manila Bulletin, August 24, 1999