{"id":6492,"date":"2017-10-11T02:25:16","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T10:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=6492"},"modified":"2017-10-10T19:29:32","modified_gmt":"2017-10-11T03:29:32","slug":"ribich-takes-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/ribich-takes-lead\/","title":{"rendered":"Ribich takes the lead"},"content":{"rendered":"
Zo<\/span>\u00eb<\/span> Strickland | Managing Editor<\/span><\/h5>\n

David Ribich has had a good year. So good, in fact, that he was promoted from his position as a tent assistant at Steens Mountain Running Camp.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI would be allowed to be a tent assistant last year but the camp founder said \u2018you are on the verge of a professional career. We\u2019re going to pull you out of the tent, you\u2019re now a tent coach,\u2019\u201d explained Ribich. \u201cNow, I\u2019m up at camp as an agent for the kids to talk to.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The camp\u2019s founder wasn\u2019t exaggerating Ribich\u2019s accolades. In the past year, the track and cross country star has been named the 2016-17 GNAC Male Athlete of the Year, won the 1500-meter title at the 2017 NCAA Division II Championships and travelled to Sacramento, California to compete in the U.S.A. Track and Field Outdoor National Championships.<\/span><\/p>\n

The latter is an honor few collegiate athletes receive. Described by Ribich as \u201cthe Olympic trials in an off-year,\u201d the experience was one to behold.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI raced against pro and top division athletes,\u201d said Ribich. \u201cI beat a lot of professional athletes signed by companies with contracts. So, this last summer really opened the door for me next year as a professional athlete.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ribich went into the event as the 33rd man in the nation and ultimately placed ninth in the final. \u00a0Solid stats for someone who started running for a no-frills team on a dirt track in Enterprise, Oregon.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t come from the stellar program,\u201d said Ribich. \u201cI just had a good coach, a dedicated coach.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

His coach, Dan Moody, is still working after 42 years, and is currently in possession of the track star\u2019s 1500-meter NCAA trophy <\/span>\u2014 he put it on his mantle.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ribich\u2019s coach isn\u2019t the only one from Enterprise rooting for him; Ribich gets letters and messages of support from citizens throughout the 2,000-person town. The letters are placed near his door in his room, serving as a constant reminder of both how he got to where he is, and what keeps him going. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI came from such a small town that I constantly get messages and letters from people. I have them pinned up on my wall in my room right by my door, so everytime I open a door I look at a letter and read it, and that\u2019s why I\u2019m doing it \u2026 I\u2019m doing this, and I\u2019m doing it for them. Keeping me motivated is everyone counting on me back home that said \u2018you\u2019re going to be a professional athlete some day\u2019 and putting that pressure on me, but it\u2019s like a challenge to me. Having them support me still when I haven\u2019t been home much is incredible.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For Ribich, the decision to start running was made out of practicality. There were only two sports offered for men in Enterprise: football and cross country.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was just that super tiny skinny kid that had a big mouth,\u201d he said. \u201c(Cross country was) what I pretty much was only able to do and because, in cross country, it\u2019s pretty much the only sport a 4-foot-10-inch freshman could beat a 6-foot, fully-matured man.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Like every graduating senior on campus, Ribich\u2019s future is on the horizon. With a major in communications and a minor in sports leadership and development, he\u2019s paving the way for himself to continue on the path that he\u2019s been running. <\/span><\/p>\n

First up on his life plan: finishing out his athletic career, regardless of how long it may be. Then, the field is wide open.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy major and minor are so broad that I know for a fact I want to be in the running community or running field,\u201d said Ribich. \u201cI just don\u2019t know if it\u2019s collegiate coaching, pro-coaching \u2026 I really enjoy public speaking. I\u2019m actually writing a journal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The journal is a recent project of his <\/span>\u2014 the first entry was written the night before the U.S.A. Track and Field prelims. Ribich is writing the currently untitled journal with the hope of using it in the future as a way of encouraging high school runners.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>I just want to focus on my athletic and running career and … try to travel to high schools, public speak and just say like, \u2018guys, you can do whatever you set your mind to. I was an 86-pound freshman from a small school, I went to a division two school, and now \u2014 hopefully \u2014 I\u2019m a professional athlete.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the immediate future, he still has to finish out the school year. He\u2019ll be running the Wes Cook Collegiate meet on Oct. 14, followed by the GNAC Championships on Oct. 21.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regardless of the path that Ribich chooses, it\u2019s bound to be great.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t do college athletics because your friends are doing it, you do it because it\u2019s something you find fun and it\u2019s your passion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact the author at journalmanaging@wou.edu<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zo\u00eb Strickland | Managing Editor David Ribich has had a good year. So good, in fact, that he was promoted from his position as a tent assistant at Steens Mountain Running Camp. \u201cI would be allowed to be a tent assistant last year but the camp founder said \u2018you are on the verge of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1017,"featured_media":6493,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1017"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}