Leonardo arrived on the scene in year 1999 and enrolled in Grossmont College. As a 6’1” middle blocker, Leo helped to propel the Griffins to the State Semis two years in a row in ’99 and 2000.  Hailing from Brazil, Leo had as much enthusiasm about the sport of volleyball as anybody we’d ever seen.  As a player, he was one of the most explosive jumpers Coach Featherstone had ever coached.  Ironically, his older brother, Gabriel, played for Seaside in the late 90’s and was selected a Junior Olympic All American for Seaside in 1998.  Gabe was a foreign exchange student at La Jolla High School, and, like Leo, was small in stature, but had tremendous ball skills.

      Leo began coaching the younger boys at Seaside in 2001 after finishing up at Grossmont.  He was assigned to the younger boys for a few years and then was assigned different developmental teams at various levels for five or six years. . .  Quite honestly, the hardest club teams to coach are the second teams.  Leo never complained about it, and was good at it.  Not only are you trying to get the players to overachieve and move up, but you are trying to get more players on the floor for increased playing time.  He was great at deflecting criticism from parents, staying focused, and took great pride in coaching the “two team” guys up, year after year.  Positive by nature, Leo’s teams were always competitive and the players really enjoyed being around him.

 In 2006, Leo did a great job with an average 17-1 team.  He led them to a Silver Medal in the Club Division.  In 2007, Leo got his big chance with our Seaside 18 Black team.  Most of the top returning players left Seaside for the new Encinitas Wave Club, but enough talent stayed with Seaside to form a competitve team.  Coach Featherstone started out coaching them in the fall, then turned everything over to Leo for the summer tournaments.  He led the team to a 5th place finish at the SoCal Classic, knocking off the #1 seed, Balboa Bay, along the way.  The team went on to finish 3rd (Bronze Medal) in the Club Division at the JO’s finishing higher than the ‘all star’ team that defected to the Wave.  Sweet revenge.

      There was nobody more loyal than Leo.  Currently, he is back in his home country, Brazil, working as an assistant with the Men’s National Team, preparing for the next Olympic Games, hosted by- none other than- Brazil.  Outstanding on the beach, Leo is back in his element full-time and loving every minute of it.

Coach Featherstone on Leonardo Moraes :  “As a college player, he was simply exciting to watch. . . Undersized in the middle, he dominated players across the board that were bigger but none more athletic. . . At Grossmont, we had him commit block a lot and run back slides with a one leg takeoff; he was good; real good. . . technically and tactically, he brought his own style, in a sense. . .His players responded well to his methods – many of them more Brazilian than USA – but who can argue with a country that is certainly more dominant at the international level. . . Passion for volleyball. . . That was Leonardo Moraes. . .I can still hear him calling for the ball – “Give me the BALL; you want to win ?, I need the ball . . .”  As a coach, in the gym, his players never left the gym in practice without being worked hard. . .if I was in the gym and he wanted me to bang balls so he could model skills, I never hesitated, especially with the middle blockers and quick attackers . .In practice, he was real good at motivating every player to perform every skill, every night, the correct way, in the gym. . .he would insist on it. . .An overachiever as a player, he instilled that attitude in his junior teams and he took great pride in getting the ‘two team’ guys to play up. . .”