Amar solid in leadership role for Long Beach State

Every building has a support beam that keeps it from collapsing. Gaby Amar is the iron beam that holds up the Long Beach State men's volleyball team.

On the outside, Amar is thin and weak. On the inside, he is strong, stable and one of the only players the 49ers can rely on.

- Ray Ratelle, Long Beach State men's volleyball coach

"Gaby's the man, he's the go-to guy," said Long Beach State coach Ray Ratelle. "We've had conversations about him taking over and doing the job and, to his credit, he's been able to do that. There's quite a bit of pressure on him."

And the pressure has been constant. Since he started at Long Beach, the senior middle blocker has been pressed to improve.

Starting off, Amar was weak in many areas which he excels in today, including blocking. Last year, Amar was ranked third in blocking, something he says made him an All-American and may do the same for him again.

"I was a really bad blocker when I came in," Amar said. "My blocking really came along last year. I think in my mind I always struggle and I'm not going to try for anything else than the best."

Amar has become one of volleyball's best in a quite a short amount of a time. He is a mere 20 years old, yet this will be his final season.

"That's kind of sad when you think that this is my last year," Amar said. "We have guys who are sophomores who are older than me. I'm not exactly Mr. Super Mature off the court."

But on the court, there is no one better. Heading into this weekend's matches against Penn State, Amar had 22 kills on 31 attempts with a solid blocking percentage of 2.6.

"Coaches run a lot of defenses against him and a lot of blocking schemes against him and he's able to carry the load," Ratelle said. "He's pretty much unstoppable."

The only thing that comes close to slowing him down is lack of strength. Amar is a 6-foot-7 bean pole.

"When he came in he had no strength at all," Ratelle said. "He works in the weight room pretty good, but he's a guy that doesn't get muscle very well. It's not easy for him."

His struggle to be on top of his game has put him in the spotlight on his team. His coaches rely on him to be a role model for the younger players but not with his pep talks.

"It's not in his character to be a guy that you can talk to," Ratelle said. "He's the guy that by his play he's our team leader."

The beam that supports the building.