But look at him now.

Having blossomed into one of the best beach volleyball players in the world in an unusually short time, the 6-foot-7 Gibb is fighting for a spot at the 2008 Beijing Olympics that would represent such a monumental achievement that he can barely stand to talk about it.

"That's why I work with a sports psychologist," he said, only half-jokingly. "To be honest, I don't love talking about it. . . . just because I don't like looking past the present, because it is a huge, huge thing for us. It really is the pinnacle of our sport for us, but I don't like talking about it, how would it feel to get there and stuff. It's just a really exciting year for us."

By "us," Gibb means himself and his partner, Sean Rosenthal, the man with whom he has shared much of his remarkable ascent in the beach volleyball world. The duo is the second-ranked American team in the world, behind Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser, and poised to make the U.S. Olympic Team for Beijing if they remain so over the next few months. Two other teams are within striking distance.

"We're not comfortable at all," Gibb said.

Mostly, that's because Gibb and Rosenthal are still working to achieve that final sliver of confidence and consistency that can make them truly the best in the world. Yes, they already have won some impressive titles, but the former Olympic silver medalist who agreed to set aside his broadcasting career in order to coach them said they're still "just this ball of potential that's building."

"It's like a dike or a dam that builds up," coach Mike Dodd said. "You have so many disappointing finals, but as they keep getting there, pretty soon they're just going to break through and have some really good finals and good wins and really good momentum toward Beijing."

That Gibb is in the position to reach the Olympics at all, however, is remarkable.

While growing up the youngest of 11 children born to Lawrence and Saundra Gibb - he was a pediatrician, she was a teacher - Gibb loved basketball, first and foremost. He was a passionate Jazz fan who "had the schedule in my room," he recalled, "and lived and died by John Stockton and Karl Malone."

But when he tried to make the Bountiful High team as a senior, he was cut.

"It devastated me," he said.

In the aftermath and his free time, then, Gibb began fiddling around with volleyball. He found he liked it pretty well, and played briefly with friends at Davis High in Kaysville, because Bountiful did not have a team. It wasn't until after he returned from a two-year LDS Church mission in Costa Rica, however, that Gibb really fell headlong for the sport.

"When I came back, I started playing a ton in my backyard," he said. "We had a crazy, droopy net and played on the grass and had a root system growing throughout court. We could play it all day."

He had sprouted four inches while he was away, too, which certainly did not hurt. But even so, Gibb was simply taking classes at the University of Utah, fully expecting that he would follow in the footsteps of his older brothers by earning a degree, then an MBA, and becoming a commercial loan officer. And though he did earn that degree, in business, he had an epiphany before following the path any further.

"I was like, what am I thinking?" he recalled. "I hate school. Why would I go back to school?"

No reason, evidently.

Having found himself loving his new sport and winning most of the few beach volleyball events he was able to enter while living in Utah, he told his wife Jane that he wanted to "try this beach volleyball thing" and move to California.

"We had first month's rent," he recalled. "We didn't have second. . . . It was the scariest thing I've done in my life."

Neither one had a job lined up, but Jane was willing to take two of them once the couple reached California in 2002, to support Gibb while he pursued his new career on the sand. He promised that if he was not ranked in the top 20 on the AVP Tour within two years, he would quit. After his first season, however, he was within the top 20. The next year, he was ranked No. 3 and won $46,145, according to the Beach Volleyball Database.

"In a million years, I would have never thought I could have got to that level," Gibb said.

To others, however, it was not such a surprise.

Though Gibb took an unconventional route to the top in a sport whose stars usually matriculate through the nation's top indoor volleyball programs, even his competitors admire him. Rogers said that Gibb and Rosenthal are "definitely more athletic than any other American team out there."

Gibb "is one of those guys that seems like he could pick up any sport," Dalhausser added. "Apparently, he's like a scratch golfer. You know, some guys are just naturals, picking things up pretty easy."

It was a good thing, too, because no sooner did Gibb win the AVP Tour's most valuable player award in his breakout season of 2005 than his partner, Stein Metzger, dumped him in favor of a childhood friend. Swapping partners is far from uncommon in beach volleyball, but it usually happens when a team is failing on the beach - not when it's ranked No. 1 on the circuit, as Gibb and Metzger were that season.

But Gibb suddenly had the cachet to essentially take his pick of new partners, and he chose "Rosey" because the two had played together in an exhibition and Gibb knew the up-and-coming defender had "just a huge upside."

The rest is almost history.

The pair convinced Dodd to coach them - "I fell in love with them and their character and drive," Dodd said - and "it clicked pretty quick." Gibb and Rosenthal ranked fifth on the AVP Tour the past two seasons and sit third this year, as well as 15th in the international rankings that determine Olympic berths. Dodd said Gibb is regarded internationally as one of the top four or five best blockers in the world because of his uncommon skills.

"He has just a burning desire to want to get up to that net and block people," Dodd said. "And you combine his innate desires and abilities with an unbelievable setting touch for a big man, and he's the kind of partner that any good defender would dream of having. He's a whole package."

What's more, Gibb has earned nearly $550,000 in his beach career, traveled the world and pulled himself to the precipice of a sporting accomplishment he never could have imagined, had he followed those older brothers into the loan business.

"I wasn't a kid who thought, 'Oh, I could go to the Olympics,' " he said. "It never really entered my mind. Really the first year I did well . . . I remember saying to people, 'I think I want to try for the Olympics.' And at that time, it was like, 'Oh, who does he think he is?' I remember starting saying that at that point, and that's where I got it in my head."

Now, all these years later, Gibb is close to getting it on his resume, too.

mcl@sltrib.com

Jake Gibb

Beach volleyball

Age: 32

Height: 6-7

Hometown: Bountiful

Residence: Costa Mesa, Calif.

See Jake play

Watch video of beach volleyball player Jake Gibb - he spins a basketball on his finger and dons a red University of Utah knit hat - on his Web site at www.jakegibb.com.