As a 7-footer, of course Gideon Marzouk is frequently asked if he plays basketball.
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Nope, but he used to. Marzouk now is restricting his sporting life to volleyball.
Marzouk, 7-foot-1 to be precise, is a junior at Tarbut V’Torah, a Jewish, coed private school in Irvine. He has helped the Tarbut V’Torah boys volleyball team advance to the CIF Southern Section Division 9 finals. The Lions (9-6) play Vasquez (13-9) on Thursday at 6 p.m. at Tabut V’Torah High.
Marzouk did not play competitive volleyball until his freshman year at Tarbut V’Torah. He also played basketball at Tarbut, which has had success in the sport, but he stopped playing basketball after his sophomore year.
Marzouk last year began playing club volleyball in the Balboa Bay Club program.
“I quit playing basketball because I want to focus on volleyball,” he said. “I also wanted to have more time for homework.”
He is serious about his studies. Marzouk’s grade-point average is a weighted 4.42. His excellence in advanced classes push that GPA above 4.0. His goal school is UCLA, where he hopes to study international business.
If anyone associated with volleyball at UCLA, or wherever he winds up, sees the 7-1 Marzouk strolling the campus, they likely will recruit him for their program.
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They might fail. High school, he said, is his final stop for playing sports.
“I actually just want to go to school for academics,” he said.
Tabut V’Torah boys volleyball coach Matt Hamadani is not surprised by that.
“He’s just an awesome kid,” Hamadini said of Marzouk. “Such a super, sweet kid.”
Marzouk’s rise in boys volleyball has been gradual.
“In my freshman year I didn’t play a lot because I hadn’t played that much until then,” he said. “Last year I got to play in every game and our team went 16-0. I really enjoyed learning the game, and I grew a little bit.”
Regarding that “little bit” of growing … Growth spurt? More like a growth boom.
Marzouk was 6-4 as a freshman, 6-8 as a sophomore and is 7-1 now as a junior.
Marzouk is a sequoia at the volleyball net, where he gets many blocks and kills. Lately he has become more of a well-rounded player.
“He still gets a lot of kills and blocks,” Hamadani said. “This year he’s taken his game to another level. Now he understands the game much better and he’s a smarter player.”
Playing club volleyball made a difference.
“That really helped me,” Marzouk said. “What makes this year different from the previous two years is that I get more sets now. Getting more reps and more practice time is making me a better player.”
Marzouk always was taller than his classmates.
“I’ve been the tallest kid my whole life,” he said. “One thing I’ve always had to do is watch out for those airplane door frames.”
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Being 7-1 does have its challenges.