Eugenio George Lafita (March 29, 1933 – June 1, 2014) was a

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

coach. Nicknamed "Volleyball guru", Lafita led the Cuban women's team to three straight gold medals in the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

and

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

. In 2000, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball named George the Best Women's Volleyball Team Coach of the Twentieth Century. George was born on March 29, 1933, in

Baracoa Baracoa, whose full original name is: ''Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Baracoa'' (“Our Lady of the Assumption of Baracoa”), is a municipality and city in Guantánamo Province near the eastern tip of Cuba. It was visited by Admiral Christop ...

. In the 1940s his family moved to Havana running from the economical crisis.Eugenio Rafael George Lafita
Ecured.cu. Retrieved 2014-08-21. His volleyball career started in 1947 at Pepe Barrientos Gymnasium in the Luyano neighborhood in

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

. For more than 40 years he was married to Graciela González until her death in 2007. Eugenio George died in Havana at the age of 81 after a long fight with cancer.

Career

His coaching career began in 1963 with the Cuban men's junior team. He built up the foundation of the men's senior team that took the gold medal at the Central American and Caribbean Games in San Juan, Puerto Rico (1966).Volleyball mourns passing of coaching legend
Fivb.org. Retrieved 2014-08-21. In 1968 took charge of the Women's National Team and trained it for 28 years. Under the management of George Laffita, the Cubans also clinched titles at the

FIVB Women's World Championship The FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship is an international volleyball competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of ' (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. The initial gap between championships was varia ...

in Soviet Union (1978), Brazil (1994) and Japan (1998), the FIVB World Cup in Japan (1989, 1991, 1995 and 1999) and the

FIVB World Grand Prix The FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix was an annual women's volleyball competition created in 1993. The men's version of the competition was called World League. This event should not be confused with the other international volleyball competitio ...

in Quezon City, Philippines (1993) and Hong Kong, China (2000). George Laffita was the president of the

NORCECA The North, Central America and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation (NORCECA) is the international governing body for the sports of volleyball in Northern America, Central America, and the Caribbean. NORCECA is the continental confederation that ...

Technical and Coaches Commission and he is a member of the FIVB Coaches Commission. In 2009, the NORCECA Congress in Antigua, Guatemala decided to establish the "Eugenio George Lafita Trophy" to the Most Outstanding Coach of the biennial Women's Continental Championship.RIP Coach Eugenio George
Volleywood.net. Retrieved 2014.08.21

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lafita, Eugenio George Cuban sportspeople People from Baracoa Sportspeople from Havana Cuban volleyball coaches 1933 births 2014 deaths Galatasaray S.K. (women's volleyball) coaches