About Jake
After moving to California six years ago with his wife and little volleyball experience, Jake Gibb made his Olympic debut in beach volleyball this summer. With partner Sean Rosenthal, they were the No. 2 U.S. men’s team; 2007 world champions Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser were No. 1. Gibb and Rosenthal won two AVP events in 2008 and one FIVB tournament. In their last match prior to the Beijing Games, the duo defeated Rogers and Dalhausser in the final of the AVP’s Long Beach event.
Coached by 1996 Olympic silver medalist Mike Dodd, Gibb and Rosenthal teamed up in 2006. It came after Gibb finished No. 1 on the AVP Tour with Metzger in 2005. After that season, Metzger’s childhood friend, Lambert, approached him about teaming up to go to the Olympics together. So despite being on the 2005 AVP Team of the Year, Metzger dumped Gibb to join Lambert. Gibb’s first choice as a replacement was Rosenthal. “Before I played with him he was the kind of guy that I would go watch when I wasn’t playing in my matches because he’s super exciting and fun to watch,” Gibb said of Rosenthal. The duo won their first tournament together, the Fort Lauderdale Open in March 2006, defeating — who else? — Metzger/Lambert in the final.
Gibb and Rosenthal fit the mold of most successful beach volleyball teams these days: one taller attacker/blocker (Gibb) and one shorter defender/passer (Rosenthal). But neither had traditional volleyball training growing up, as neither played for high school or college indoor teams like many beach volleyball pros. “We’re both kind of these unschooled athletes and we come in and get taught by this master (Dodd). It’s really a cool thing where we both kind of learn together,” Gibb says. While both players say they may be physically healthier now than if they’d played indoor volleyball growing up, they both say they have bad habits that could’ve been eliminated by coaches years ago. “I think we both still have a lot to learn and a lot of room to grow,” Rosenthal says.
In the U.S., beach volleyball is generally looked at as a California sport. And Californian players take pride in their sport, especially when someone from mountainous Utah is trying to take it over. It took awhile for Rosenthal to warm up to Gibb. “I heard about him and I’ve been out here playing for 11 years or something,” Rosenthal said. “I’m like, ‘Who’s this guy Jake?’ And all of a sudden he’s climbing up the ranks real fast and I’m playing him and he’s blocking me all the time. I’m like, ‘Oh I hate this guy from Utah.’” Rosenthal says he didn’t really hate Gibb, but didn’t get to know him until about a year later, and found out the Utahan was all right.
Gibb got an especially late start in volleyball, as he didn’t begin playing regularly until he was 21 years old. Gibb says he originally thought volleyball was a girl’s sport, but after playing in a recreation league his senior year of high school, he began to like it. While on a two-year church mission after high school, Gibb grew about four inches to 6-foot-6, and started playing extensively in his backyard with his twin brother Coleman when he returned home. Jake never took up the sport while attending the University of Utah, but in 2000 he competed in some AVP events with a friend, Mike Daniel, who paid his expenses to help him qualify for the AVP Tour, which they did. However, Gibb returned to school, graduated in 2002 with a degree in business and was working at a bank training to become a commercial loan officer before he decided give beach volleyball a real try. With $1,600 in his pocket, Gibb and his wife Jane moved to California later in 2002.
In 2000, Gibb married his wife Jane, a former volleyball player who also graduated from Utah in 2002. Gibb says she supported him from the get-go with his desire to try professional beach volleyball. “We didn’t have any money but we had like first month’s rent, and Jane, my wife, took up two jobs and said, ‘Hey, go try this beach volleyball thing for a while.’ Kind of a testament to her; that’s a pretty gnarly wife, that she just gave me the go ahead.” Jake promised to be ranked among the AVP’s top 20 within two years, or he’d quit. After his first season, 2003, Gibb ranked 19th; following his second season, he ranked third with partner Adam Jewell; and with Metzger in 2005, Gibb ranked No. 1 in the AVP. He was named the AVP’s Most Valuable Player in 2005.
Gibb’s first few years competing in AVP events were spent with Daniel. But Gibb left Daniel in 2003 when Jewell, an AVP veteran, asked him to team up. Gibb and Jewell won an AVP event in 2004 and seemed to make a great team, but Gibb’s play caught the attention of Metzger, who teamed with Dax Holdren at the 2004 Olympics. Seeking a taller partner, Metzger approached Gibb about teaming up for the 2005 season. Gibb accepted the offer, and he and Metzger won five AVP events in 2005 before splitting up.
The youngest of 11 children (six boys, five girls), Gibb’s legal middle name is Spiker, which was the maiden name of his mother, Saundra. Though his brother Coleman is Jake’s twin, they are not identical and Coleman stands just 6-1. A huge Utah Jazz fan, Jake grew up hoping to use his height to play basketball. But as a 6-2 senior at Bountiful High, he was cut from the team. Gibb golfed a lot growing up, and now plays frequently with Rosenthal. “I’ve been playing longer so maybe I’m a couple strokes better, but he’s kind of just a natural talent and he just learns the game and out drives me by 30 yards right now, it’s disgusting. But yeah, we have really good games.”