We were up 12 points to 11," says Hernán Humaña, reliving his Sydney Olympic experience. Humaña [MA'92] is a York kinesiology professor who coached the Canadian beach volleyball team competing at this year's Summer Games and who now coaches York's highly successful women's varsity indoor volleyball team.

Humaña, 47, began playing the game as a young man in his native Chilé. After his father was released from one of dictator Pinochet's concentration camps in 1973, Humaña's family fled the country. Volleyball was one of the reasons that Humaña stayed in Chilé ­ at the time, he played for the national men's indoor volleyball team.

The mid-'70s were a time of intense social upheaval in Chilé, and many people fled the country, he says. Humaña thought the better course was to stay and try to change the government. "It's not my style to run away from things," Humaña explains. "I was young and stupid."

After a few dangerous close calls with Pinochet's forces, Humaña emigrated to Canada in 1980. Almost immediately he joined a volleyball team affiliated with York, despite his limited grasp of English. "The coach would call a time-out, and I had no idea what he was saying," recalls Humaña, who eventually earned his master's in sociology from York. "It proved to me that coaching matters only so much." He helped to coach the men's team at the Barcelona games in 1992. Then one of his old players, John Child, asked Humaña to coach him and his beach-volleyball partner, Mark Heese, for the Atlanta games. Humaña's players won a bronze, and the trio began preparing for Sydney.

This year Humaña had his hopes set on the gold but in what would turn out to be the longest match of the Games, Humaña's team lost 15 points to 13. Canada placed fifth; Brazil lost in the finals to take the silver medal. "We shed a few tears," says Humaña. "It's four years of hard work. You sacrifice a lot of things, your family, your friends ­- you really put your life on hold to perform well at the Olympics. We took it very hard."

Will Humaña attempt to compete at the 2004 Games? He won't rule it out, but says "We're going to take it one year at a time."

photo: Susan King