Damien Schumann was bitterly disappointed when he was axed from his school volleyball team at Mazenod College in Melbourne’s South East.
The decision prompted the then 18 year-old to switch his focus from the indoor court to the grains of sand within a beach volleyball arena, and he has never looked back.
More than a decade later, he has a Commonwealth Games gold medal hanging proudly in his pool room.
Schumann became the inaugural Commonwealth Games Men’s Beach Volleyball Champion with partner Chris McHugh on a historic Wednesday evening at Gold Coast 2018.
It has been described as one of the greatest beach volleyball matches in history, three thrilling sets were produced that saw the Australian pair triumph over the highly favoured Canadian duo of Sam Pedlow and Sam Schachter to win gold, 2-1 (21-19, 18-21, 18-16).
The Aussie’s took an early grip on the first set, before the Canadians fought back to claim the second, the two teams went into a nerve-racking third set.
It was a display of true Australian grit that had the electric Coolangatta crowd on the edge of their seats during the deciding set.
In a race to 15, Schumann and McHugh were trailing 9-12 mid-way through the third set which saw the Australian pair at a crossroad, entering into a realm that only a few select sportsmen can understand.
“It’s hard to describe those sorts of pressure-filled moments,” Schumann said.
“You can just feel you heart pumping and the adrenaline coursing. You’re not sore, you’re not fatigued, you’re not tired. Your eyes go a little bit wider and you’re just ready for anything.”
“There’s no steadiness when it gets to that place in the game.”
Schumann said the pair had to dig deep when the odds were against them.
“Beach volleyball is one of those games when you are down 9-12 in the third set, you shouldn’t really win those ones,” he said.
Eventually, the home side gutsed it out with the crowd roaring them on to snatch gold from the red hot favourite Canadians.
The golden partnership, which formed after the Rio Olympics, is evidently a winning one with the potential to become better and stronger.
“We’re constantly getting better on the things we want to improve on,” said defender Schumann.
Now the pair are Champions of the Commonwealth - the first beach volleyball players to ever hold that title.
“To win a gold medal is absolutely unbelievable,” Schumann says.
“That’s crazy man, how cool’s that?”
