Eugenio George Laffita, prize-winning coach who for years trained Cuba’s women’s volleyball teams, winners of three Olympic and two World Championship gold medals, died May 31, at 81 years of age, of cancer.

Mireya Luis, captain of the phenomenal Morenas del Caribe, was the last to bid farewell to George, in the family mausoleum at Havana’s Colón Cemetery, where the outstanding coach was laid to rest.

The Cuban sports legend Mireya Luis, emphasized, "We are not saying goodbye to someone who had a normal life, we bid farewell to a sports hero, who was, until almost the last day of his life, on the court, passing on his wisdom, experience and calm, because in volleyball not everything is always rosy."

"He had the intelligence to get up after a set back. Thank you for being so human, for leaving so much love within those that accompany you here today," said Luis.

A wreath sent by José Ramón Fernández, president of the Cuban Olympic Committee, was among the many floral offerings at the funeral, reported Granma.

From early on Sunday June 1, former players from various generations of the national team, those from the current pre-selection team, coaches from diverse disciplines and directors of the National Sports, Physical Education and Recreation Institute (INDER), paid tribute to George at the Colón Cemetery in Havana.

Considered to be the principal architect of Cuban volleyball, Eugenio was born February 22, 1935, in Baracoa, in the province of Guantánamo. He developed an interest in the sport from an early age. At the end of the 1940’s his family moved to Havana, in search of better economic opportunities, where he attended high school, became involved in volleyball, together with his brother Edgar, realizing their dream of becoming first class athletes.

His tenacity won him a spot on the national team as an attacker, participating in the Pan American Games in Mexico, 1955 and Chicago in 1959, the Central American and Caribbean Games in Jamaica, 1962 and the World Championships in Paris, 1956, among other competitions. At the end of the 1950’s he retired from the sport.

He was one of the key contributors to the Cuban school of volleyball’s global recognition in 1968, having studied the characteristics of the game and demanding training at a level equal, if not superior, to that of a competition game. He laid the foundation for the development of endurance and the psychological strengthening of his pupils. In the same year, he assumed the role of coach to the women’s team known as las Morenas del Caribe.

George with the fantastic Morenas del Caribe.

He is considered to be the best women’s team coach of the 20th century by the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB), and was also president of the Cuban Volleyball Federation, later continuing to work as a consultant to national teams.