Instead, he ended up in Missouri at Park University, which has a top NAIA volleyball program. Becoming a member of Venezuela's senior national team in 2005, Silva didn't play at Park while working on passing English tests and gaining academic standing. During an international tournament in Thailand, he met Puerto Rico's Ivan Perez, who was BYU-bound and suggested Silva consider the Cougar program.

And when Venezuela faced the United States in the 2006 World Championships, Silva met U.S. middle blocker Ryan Millar, the former BYU All-American who was joining the BYU coaching staff — and the Cougar connection for Silva became even more solidified.

The native of Venezuela's tropical plains eventually arrived in snow-bound Provo during the December 2006 semester break, by himself for the holidays. The relatively unknown freshman libero soon broke into BYU's main rotation early the next month — and has stayed there the past two seasons as a solid Cougar contributor.

Offseason heartbreaks last year included missing the 2007 Pan American Games because of a broken finger and the fall passing of his father back home.

This past January, Venezuela enjoyed the double delight of both its men's and women's senior teams winning their respective South American zone Olympic qualifying tournaments — the women triumphing in Peru and the men, including Silva, beating Argentina, the favored men's tournament host.

In the history of the Summer Games, Venezuela has fielded only three teams — most recently with soccer in 1984 and men's basketball in 1992. The oil-rich nation will double that total this summer by making Olympic debuts in Beijing in three team sports — men's and women's soccer and softball.

The four-set finals qualifying victory over Argentina was especially sweet for the Venezuelan men, who had scrambled from U.S. collegiate programs and pro teams across the globe for a week's worth of practice. They ended up avenging the team's loss to Argentina in the 2004 Olympic qualifying finals played in Caracas.

"That was a big deal in Venezuela," said Silva of the double qualification, as Hugo Chavez sent his presidential jet to fetch both teams back to a heroes' welcome back home.

"It took two hours to get out of the (Caracas) airport and get to the president's house — everywhere it was full of people," said Silva, adding that national team members had to postpone most of the celebrations as they were forced to return to their collegiate and pro teams.

They're returning this summer to comprise one of the youngest men's volleyball national teams — all members are under 30 years, with Silva at age 22.

Venezuela currently is prepping for the Beijing Games by competing in the 2008 World League, in the Pool A foursome with France, Serbia and Brazil, the latter the world's top-ranked team this summer.

Ranked No. 20 in the world, Venezuela did upset 8th-ranked Serbia earlier this summer. And they've taken 1-0 set leads in a pair of World League losses to Brazil.

And in Beijing, Venezuela will be in Pool A along with third-ranked United States, No. 4 Bulgaria, No. 10 Italy, No. 12 Japan and No. 21 China.

Venezuela makes its Olympic debut on Aug. 10 against the United States, pitting Silva against Millar, his former Cougar coach.

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E-mail: taylor@desnews.com