From: Bryan Brown
Terrebonne, Oregon
Longtime Columbus East High School swimming coach Dave Fribley will not be poolside this fall after a half-century career dedicated to athletics and academics.
Fribley arrived in Columbus in 1973 with wife, Sally, and set up housekeeping on Tamerix Lake (where the family still lives) prior to the birth of daughter Corinne. Daughters Laura Anne and Karla arrived in 1975 and 1980.
Columbus residents will recall that CEHS construction was drastically behind schedule in 1973, and the pool was its most delayed project. It is a coach’s worst nightmare to have a predetermined meet schedule but no place to practice or host events. During the year it took to complete the pool, Fribley shuttled the team to every pool in town. The winter of 1973 saw CEHS swimmers practicing at Southside until 8 p.m. and at the Boy’s Club as early as 5 a.m.
In spite of these hurdles, Fribley coached CEHS’s swimmers to the first team victory in the school’s history (recall that CEHS had no seniors in 1973).
Fribley was a champion of the nontraditional swimmer. He recruited individuals who might not have found their way into competitive sports if not for an invitation from the coach known for converting undiscovered talent into competitive swimming skills. He provided a level playing field for all participants. Fribley was committed to the notion that athletics are an essential part of the high school experience. Everything possible should be done to keep them in the mix as a healthy adjunct to Columbus’ strong academic tradition.
Immediately after CEHS opened, those of us who experienced coach Fribley’s inclusive approach to team building were exposed to an environment that required uncommon dedication, extreme adaptability, and a healthy dose of whatever elixir it takes to overcome adversity.
Some five decades of life experience now inform those of us who participated in the early years of CEHS swimming that these traits are neither easily obtained nor readily relinquished. Roughly 25% of the individuals on East’s Alumni Wall of Fame were involved in Fribley-managed swimming programs (at least three more highly qualified candidates with swimming connections to Fribley are waiting in the wings). Coach Fribley shares well-earned space on that wall in the heartfelt inscription of inductee David Pence.
If you were to ask Fribley about his Wall of Fame connections, he might characteristically say something like “1,000 teammates, parents, siblings, and friends placed them on that particular podium.”
It also took a coach who respected individual initiative, encouraged creative thinking, managed bloated high school egos, constantly reaffirmed the importance of sportsmanship and scholarship, and actively supported the development of female swimming programs during the early years of the long-overdue Title IX athletic tsunami in 1972.
This is not an eulogy. Coach Fribley is alive and kicking. Bump elbows with him when next you see him — and thank him for the years he has dedicated to the youth of Columbus.
Tell him the swimmers sent you.
