Leila Manaois '18 Recruiting Profile

     College education is one goal I have set my mind to accomplish.  It is my personal choice.  Volleyball is also my choice.  Even if my name was derived from a famous volleyball player from Brazil in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, I  was never keen to playing the sport, never held a volleyball, until my Freshmen year.  With  just self confidence and determination in my mind, I thought i can just do it.  Not to mention I need to travel 9 miles a day since I was enrolled in a science and technology magnet school with no sports in their curriculum.  It was against all odds.  My parents were the once who let me realize that it is a skill that needs to be 'learned' and 'practiced' numerous times, consistently.  That same summer before my Freshmen year, I was enrolled at San Gabriel Elite Volleyball Club.  Reality struck me that i know nothing and i'm far behind from being accepted to play volleyball in high school. I only have three months to learn the sport, before hight school tryouts . But it did not stop me from working towards my goal.  I started first week of May 2014 on a 9AM to 2PM and back again 6 to 7PM schedule, Monday to Friday until August 2014 in time for the try outs.  I made it to the SophFresh team and was Team Captain on my first year. I was also privileged to be included in the varsity team for the CIF Southern Section play-offs on that same year in November.  

     With that early life lesson I learned on that summer year, I came up with my driving force,  that is,  if one makes a personal choice, set a goal, proper guidance, reality check and education are major keys to accomplish success.