The562’s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2025-26 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl.
There he stood: a 6-foot-7, blonde-haired, blue-eyed Canadian stepping off a plane in the United States for the first time.
Just weeks earlier, he had no idea he’d be moving out of his home country. His only vision for his volleyball future at that point was to graduate from his local high school in Muenster, Saskatchewan, then play at a Canadian university during the school year while competing on the country’s national team in the summer.
Turns out, there were other plans for that kid, Skyler Varga.
He never would have guessed it, but four years later his name is cemented in Long Beach’s rich volleyball history, and the All-American outside hitter is now preparing for the final weekend of his collegiate career, looking to go out on top. Varga and the Beach have a chance to claim a second straight NCAA National Championship as they gear up to face Hawai’i on Saturday in the Final Four.
“It’s definitely scary,” Varga admitted. “I want to win so badly, but I’m trying not to put too much pressure on it. I’m just trying to enjoy my last couple of practices and go into this weekend knowing that I’ve been training for this moment for the last four years. I just want to help our team get to the last match of the season, and if we get there, when we get there, I’m going to do everything I can to help this team hang up another banner.”
It wasn’t until the end of his first college season at the University of Saskatchewan that Varga’s planned-out career took a different direction. Up to that point, he had followed in the footsteps of his brothers, Devin and Lyndon, but things changed once he decided to transfer—a move that would have required a one-year sit-out period within Canada.
During his stint with the national team that summer, head coach at the time Ben Josephson brought up a different idea. Josephson, who had been closely mentored by former Long Beach State coach Alan Knipe, suggested Varga transfer to play NCAA volleyball in the United States.
“I honestly didn’t know anything about the NCAA, and I thought I was going to play all five years [at the University of Saskatchewan],” Varga said. “The idea never crossed my mind until [Josephson] brought it up, and I didn’t even know there was volleyball down here, to be honest. He got me in contact with Nick [MacRae], McKay [Smith] and [Knipe], and things just happened so quickly.”
Long Beach State is one of the top landing spots in the country for international volleyball talent, making it a great fit. Just this past summer, nine current and former players represented four different countries in the Volleyball Nations League, and after being connected through Josephson, the Beach’s coaching staff immediately saw the potential for him to become their next international star.
“For us, we saw that he had the arm of a lifetime on film,” said MacRae, who was an assistant at the time but is now in his first year as head coach of the Beach. “You mix it with not even being a top 10-percenter, but a top 1-percenter with his work ethic—he put in all the work and the rest is history.”
Varga made his decision within weeks of connecting with the coaching staff. He had only been out of the country once before, but it was time to pack his bags and head to California to continue his volleyball career—a place he’d soon come to know as home away from home.
“I didn’t know what to expect coming here,” he said. “I was just kind of blown away by the busyness of everything, but I thought it was really cool. I kind of just fell in love with it right away. California is awesome, and Long Beach is great. I understood why people love it here so much.”
Varga made an immediate impression upon arrival, and his teammates quickly gravitated toward him—a trait that would later earn him back-to-back selections as a team captain.
“From day one to now, [Varga] is one of the greatest men that I’ve ever been around,” MacRae said. “That’s from a leadership standpoint and from a competitive standpoint, but mostly just him as a human being.”
But his path to three straight NCAA Final Fours was anything but perfect. Just two games into his first season with the Beach, Varga faced the toughest challenge of his career, landing awkwardly in practice before the team’s trip to Penn State and later discovering he had torn his meniscus, ending his season indefinitely.
“The months of recovery after were really hard,” Varga said. “It was a lot of pulling up to practice in the morning, groggy, not wanting to be here because I had to do my PT and rehab and then watch practice for two hours. I was miserable. I just wanted to be playing. It’s hard to watch and not be out there.”
The turnaround to his first full season playing with the Beach was quick. After the January injury, Varga underwent a second surgery and didn’t return to full activity until November, leaving him just weeks to prepare for his junior year.
Varga switched to opposite that season to better fit the team and earned Honorable Mention All-American honors, recording 16 double-digit kill performances and averaging 3.77 points per set while also leading the team in aces per set. The Beach reached the NCAA championship match that season, falling to UCLA in four sets at the Walter Pyramid.
“You learn a lot after losing. It’s hard, but you realize that it’s not the end of the world,” Varga said. “Obviously, it would’ve been great to come out with a national championship after everything that went on that year, but I knew I had two more years left and I took everything from that match and applied it in 2025 and hopefully again this weekend.”
Varga was selected as a First-Team AVCA All-American in 2025, helping the Beach earn redemption in the national championship with a sweep over UCLA at the Covelli Center in Columbus, Ohio. He led the team with 270 kills on the season while hitting .368, helping the Beach claim its fourth championship in program history.
“From the moment last year’s team got together, we all had the same goal of winning a national championship,” Varga said. “We lost a couple games here and there, like the Big West tournament, but it still felt right. Walking into the Covelli Center, we just knew it was our game and felt like we were going to do good things. We just knew. It’s kind of indescribable.”
Whatever that feeling was, he’s hoping to find it again this weekend. The Beach’s hopes of reaching another national championship rest on Saturday’s semifinal matchup against Hawai’i at 6:30 pm at Pauley Pavilion, the fourth meeting between the two rivals this season.
The last time the teams met was just two weeks ago in the Big West Championship, where Varga had 16 kills while hitting .237 in the Beach’s win. With a win Saturday, Long Beach State would advance to Monday’s national championship match at 4 pm at Pauley Pavilion against either UC Irvine or Ball State.
“I’m definitely going to tell the team later this week, like, ‘Trust me, I’ve been in these situations and you don’t need to panic,” Varga said of the message to his younger teammates. “‘It’s big, but be grateful you’re in this moment. Not a lot of people get to experience this, so take it in and don’t be afraid of the pressure.’”
Whether or not another championship banner is hung in the rafters this weekend, Varga’s career in Long Beach will stand among the best. And yet, when asked what he’ll remember most from the past four years, it wasn’t the championships.
“It’s just the super tight family that I’ve made in Long Beach,” he said. “Not just men’s volleyball, but the campus and city are just close, and I’m going to miss that part of seeing familiar faces around all the time. Just coming to practice and seeing the guys, playing in the Pyramid every day is unbeatable. It’s the best venue and the best place to play for sure, so I’m definitely going to miss that a lot.”
