Regla Bell, the Left Striker of Cuban Volleyball

If it were not for the fact that there’s Mireya Luis, I’d say that the most spectacular volleyball striker I have seen is Regla Bell.

Like Mireya she was not tall for this sport (1.80 in height), but she relied on great jumping power and enormous power in her attacks.

The player from Havana, who turns 50 this July and once confessed that she would have liked to be a doctor if she had not dedicated herself to sports, had a powerful strike when she jumped for the ball, and dodged the fiercest blocks when attacked through zone 2 and 4.

Key player in the three gold medals of Cuba in the Olympic Games, and every victory of the Spectacular Brunettes of the Caribbean in that golden age, she was feared by all the rivals.

In addition to her indisputable qualities as a player, which she inherited in part from her family, she also had a demonstrated courage, which made her grow bigger when things got tougher, when playing against the Brazilian team. With the passing of time, today they are all friends, but you had to be blind not to see the sparks flying with the net between them.

Well, in all these confrontations the two passers that Cuba used at the time knew that they could send balls at any time to the Bell, which was a certain point.

The twists of life led her to live abroad, where she continued her career as a volleyball player in Spain, but no one can hide her merits or try to erase her from that generation, where she was not just one more.

Both she, Magaly Carvajal, and Taimaris Agüero, just to mention two of those who took different directions in the last stages of their sport careers, gave their every beat for the Cuban team, and it’s only fair to remember them whenever possible.

That’s why we help Regla Bell to blow in our minds her 50 candles, and we encourage those who didn’t watch her play to look for videos of the Cuban team on Internet to appreciate what we are talking about. The rest is simply invisible to the naked eye.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff