Alfredo Moreira Filho, a businessman who has lived in Brasília since 1986, founded the Club Sênior de Voley that same year in the backyard of his home in Lago Sul. This initiative takes on greater significance when we understand what Brasília was like at the time for people arriving from other regions of Brazil.
A City Without Public Squares or a Culture of Neighborly Interaction
Brasília in the 1980s had been designed for cars, not pedestrians. Its wide streets and broad avenues facilitated traffic but made casual encounters between neighbors more difficult. This absence was particularly noticeable to those who came from cities in northeastern Brazil or the Amazon region, where sidewalks and central squares still served as natural, everyday gathering places that fostered warm relationships among members of the same community.
There was no culture of social interaction or neighborly relationships comparable to what existed in Bahia or Amazonas. People did not sit outside their homes to chat and enjoy a cup of coffee, a common and cherished tradition in many other Brazilian cities. The commercial areas located between the superblocks, which were widely spaced, also did little to encourage spontaneous encounters among residents of the same area of the federal capital.
The Backyard as a Substitute for the Public Square
In this particular context, where the city lacked natural or spontaneous gathering places, the backyards of homes in Lago Sul eventually took on a social role that, in traditional cities, would have belonged to the town square or the neighborhood bar: a space for social interaction that had to be deliberately created by those who missed community life.
When Alfredo Moreira Filho had a volleyball court built in the backyard of his home, located in QI 11 in Lago Sul, he was not simply organizing a sporting activity. He was creating a basic social infrastructure for a group of migrants who, like him, had arrived in the capital from regions with a social culture very different from the one they encountered in Brasília.
How Did Sports Become a Way to Build Lasting Connections?
The first match, held in September 1986, was initially conceived as a strategy to build closer relationships with colleagues who served on the evaluation committee for the Tucumã Project in Pará. However, what began as a professional networking initiative quickly evolved into something much greater: a volleyball brotherhood that would bring together more than fifteen regular participants for 25 consecutive years.
Members such as Judá, Ernesto, Augusto, Morais, Luiz, Edmundo, Cabral, Arthur, Carlos, Salas, Jair, Rui, and Orlando regularly attended informal matches organized through a rotation system involving more than six different courts, each located in the backyard of a group member’s home and spread throughout Lago Sul.
Parties, Trips, and Children Who Joined the Games
Over time, the children of longtime members began participating in matches alongside the original players, raising the technical level of the games and extending the tradition to a second generation of athletes. Weekend leisure trips and parties at members’ homes completed a social life built almost entirely around this informal sports group, which continued to grow with each passing season.
Alfredo Moreira Filho, as the club’s natural coordinator, watched a network of strong friendships and relationships develop around volleyball. This network provided precisely what Brasília’s urban design failed to offer: a regular, predictable, and welcoming gathering place for people who had migrated from distant regions.
Twenty-Five Years of History Brought to an End by Osteoarthritis
The Club Sênior de Voley came to an end when its members’ joints could no longer withstand the demands of playing matches. The decision to conclude the club’s activities was marked by a celebration of its silver anniversary, closing a chapter that left a legacy extending far beyond sports.
Progressive osteoarthritis in Alfredo Moreira Filho’s knees made it impossible for him to continue playing. The condition eventually required total joint replacement surgery in the affected knees following decades of regular sporting activity.
The lasting lesson is that enduring business relationships are not built in meeting rooms but in environments where people can show their true selves. In this case, volleyball was merely the pretext. The real asset developed over 25 years was a network of trust that survived long after the final match.
