New Bedford’s Allexia Barros Signs for Second Pro Basketball Season

New Bedford's Allexia Barros continues to make her professional basketball dreams come true. She has signed for a second season with the New England Trailblazers of the Women's American Basketball League.

Barros will serve as captain of the team when play begins in July. Last year, she led the Trailblazers to an undefeated season, and is looking to repeat that.

"Lexi is a true inspiration, on and off the court," said her agent, Helen Bohanna, CEO and Lead WNBA sports agent with She Knows Her Sports, LLC. "She's a standout with the Trailblazers, she's the head coach of Bay State Elite's AAU girls' fourth grade team that just won the championship at the Mohegan Sun tournament, and she's not stopping until she plays in the WNBA."

Last year, she also played for the Cape Verdean national team.

That's as close as you'll get to defining a dynamo.

"I fell in love with basketball since the time I was a kid playing ball in our living room, with my twin brother. My dream was to get to play in the WNBA, and I'm going to make it happen," Barros said.

Barros tries to instill that same drive and passion into her AAU players.

"We won another championship because I taught the players how to play basketball the right way. I helped them focus on building their confidence, and growing together as a unit," she said. "When I was growing up in New Bedford, I wish I had a coach doing what I'm doing with them. You can say I want to give them something I never had."

Barros, the daughter of Tara Gonsalves and Amando Barros, said having the support of her family and friends is an important factor in her career, which soon will include creating a new company to empower local young women.

"I'm in the process of building my own brand called The Underdogs. We need more empowerment programs like mine, especially in New Bedford, because it all comes down to helping others," she said. "That's my thing. I love the feeling I get from it."

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Next month, Barros will be launching her own apparel line, with her champion basketball players modeling the outfits.

While the team was in Connecticut, Barros saw WNBA star Breanna Stewart in the crowd, and decided to get the luminary's attention.

"Hey Breanna," she said. "Remember me, because I'm going to be your teammate someday!"