Enterprise High School track star takes career to next level

Published 4:15 pm Monday, January 16, 2023

ENTERPRISE — Professional runner and 2014 Enterprise High School graduate David Ribich last week announced his decision to run for Oregon’s most recognizable brand — Nike.

After four years running for Brooks, Ribich said going to Nike’s Union Athletics Club had a lot to do with a meeting of the minds with coach Pete Julian.

“Pete’s and my philosophies are similar,” he said. “After I met with him at the end of October, I told my agent, ‘I have to go there.’”

Julian said he’s known David for a while and, because he is an Oregon runner, has followed his career.

“I was able to observe his career in college and he sorta broke through and was able to compete on a national level,” Julian said. “And then he went professional — it was very cool to see.”

Ribich not only has the talent and the work ethic, Julian said, but he is well known in the pro running community and has good relationships with other athletes, attributes he brings to Nike’s brand.

“He has something to prove,” Julian said. “I like to think our team is the tip of the spear in distance running and David thrives when he has something to work for.”

Ribich will be training with champions on his new team and Julian said he can get to that level, too.

“My job is to get him to really understand that he belongs and he can compete with the best guys in the world,” Julian said.

As a senior at Western Oregon University, Ribich was recruited by both Nike and Brooks. At that time, he said, he felt Brooks was a better fit.

“I have always been a small school kid, kind of the underdog, and that was Brooks’ persona,” Ribich said.

For four years, Ribich ran for the Brooks label and had success on the track. He wrote a book, donates time and money to Wallowa County organizations, speaks at the schools and has become a role model. Wallowa County high school cross country and Enterprise track coach Dan Moody said Ribich set the tone for the runners who came after him.

“All the kids try to emulate David and he is so supportive of the program and gives back all the time,” he said. “He set a high standard for them and they know success doesn’t come easy — it takes hard work.”

Racing with the best runners in the world takes more than hard work, Ribich said, and when he wasn’t improving at the rate he wanted, he said he took a hard look at his career.

“When I was training and competing with Brooks I rarely hit goals,” he said.

Ribich said he started thinking about how much longer he wanted to be in the sport and how much longer he wanted to be with Brooks. In July, Ribich said, he started training alone and doing a lot of soul searching.

“I got engaged and I had the realization that my life is progressing, great things are happening, but the one thing that hasn’t improved is my running,” he said.

During his time away from the Brooks team, Ribich said he ran a personal best, felt healthy and happy and realized he wasn’t ready to stop racing. In September Brooks released him. He said with support from his family, he began pursuing other opportunities. This time, he said, interviewing at the Nike headquarters felt right.

“Pete and I met for three or four hours and when I walked away from the conversation it was like the goals conversations I had with other coaches,” Ribich said.

Always goal-oriented, as a freshman in high school, Moody said Ribich saw Krista Stangel’s state championship banner hanging in the Enterprise High School gym and set that goal for himself. His senior year, he won the state cross-country championship race as well as the 1,500 and 3,000 meter races on the track.

A Western Oregon track veteran and alum, when it was Oregon College of Education, Moody said he saw Ribich’s potential for goal-setting beyond the state championship.

“When he signed with Western I told the coach, ‘I haven’t even scratched the surface with this kid,’” Moody said. “He’s always been mentally tough, but he started growing in college and kept getting better and better and better.”

At Western, Ribich said Mike Johnson, the WOU track coach, and he set four-year goals each year that included post-collegiate professional racing.

“Mike was grounded in how he presented opportunities to me, which was similar to Moody,” Ribich said. “They helped me set goals and let me develop at my own rate.”

With a contract in hand and a race Jan. 27 in Spokane, Washington, Ribich said his main goal is to take his racing to a higher level.

“I am at the middle to latter part of my career and I don’t want it summed up by my years at Brooks,” he said. “Now that I’m with Nike, my focus is on running fast.”