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Associate Head Coach Gabe Ribas completed his sixth season with Santa Clara baseball and fourth as associate head coach in 2016-17. Ribas is the team's pitching coach and recuriting coordinator.

Bronco baseball has landed Top 100-ranked recruiting classes (Perfect Game USA) in each of the last four seasons. Santa Clara is one of only two West Coast Conference programs to accomplish that feat during that span.

The Broncos posted a 13-40 overall record in 2017 with a 9-18 West Coast Conference record. Ribas' pitching staff suffered multiple key injuries prior to and during the season. As a result, the staff and specifically the bullpen, was very young. Senior Jacob Steffens, the team's top starter, finished third in the WCC and tied for 33rd in the nation with 101 strikeouts. He ranked fourth in the WCC in strikeout-to-walk ratio at 5.05-to-1. 

Under Ribas' direction in 2016, Santa Clara had a pair of All-West Coast Conference Honorable Mention pitchers in Mitchell White and Max Kuhns. White was selected in the second round (65th overall) by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2016 MLB Draft, the highest Bronco draft pick since Randy Winn in 1995. He struck out 118 batters, which tied for 10th in Bronco single-season history, and fanned the most batters by a Santa Clara pitcher in a single season since 1995. White was also the WCC regular season strikeout champion. Kuhns was selected in the 21st round (640th overall) by the New York Mets. His 14 saves were the most by a Bronco in single-season history.

This 2015 Bronco pitching staff featured All-West Coast Conference Second Team selection Reece Karalus (who was named to the NCBWA Midseason Stopper of the Year Watch List for the second straight season) as well as an All-WCC Freshman Team selection in White. Karalus was selected in the 8th round of the 2016 MLB draft by the Tampa Bay Rays (No. 238 Overall), the fourth highest Bronco draft pick since 1998.

During the 2014 season, his first in the new position, Ribas led a pitching staff that featured an All-WCC First Team closer in Karalus, an All-WCC Honorable Mention starting/relief pitcher in Jacob Steffens, and an NCBWA Stopper of the Year Mid-Season Watch List selection in Karalus.

Ribas's previous baseball experience includes pitching in the Big Ten Conference pitching in Minor League Baseball and serving as a collegiate assistant coach for five seasons. Ribas spent one year as an assistant coach at Northern Colorado immediately before joining the Broncos.

Prior to his stint with the Bears in 2011, Ribas spent the 2009 season at Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. where he worked primarily with pitchers and coordinated recruiting efforts. From 2007-09, he worked at his alma mater Northwestern in Evanston, Ill., as an outfielders' coach and recruiting coordinator. Ribas spent the 2007 season as a full-time staff member at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., where he worked directly with pitchers. Ribas began his coaching career at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine in 2006 as the team's pitching coach.

Selected by the San Diego Padres in the 14th round (No. 415 Overall) of the 2002 Major League Baseball Amateur Player Draft, Ribas earned the Rolaids Relief Man of the Year award by going 8-1 with 16 saves in his first professional season as a member of the Class-A Eugene Emeralds. The same season he was named to the Northwest League All-Star team. In 2003, Ribas was named the Padres' Minor League Pitcher of the Year after he had an organization-best 17-8. He led all Padres minor leaguers with 152 strikeouts.

Ribas was a member of the Northwestern University baseball program as a pitcher from 1999-02 and ranks among the program's leaders in numerous statistical categories. He is second in Wildcat history with 330.1 innings pitched, 288 strikeouts and 51 games started. Ribas posted a career record of 21-22, was a second-team All-Big Ten selection in 2000, a Big Ten all-tournament team pick in 2002 and a three-time Academic All-Big Ten selection.

Ribas earned a dual-degree in 2002 from Northwestern in communications and English.

As a high school player, Ribas was named the 1998 Maine State Player of the Year by USA Today.

"Gabe is first and foremost an outstanding human being," said Bronco head coach O'Brien on the day Ribas's hiring was announced. "I truly believe that Gabe is one of the best kept secrets in the coaching community today. He is the right guy to help us build something very special here at Santa Clara."

"I am extremely excited to have the opportunity to be a part of Coach O'Brien's new staff," Ribas said on the day his hiring was announced. "I think the baseball program is going in an incredibly upward direction and Bronco baseball is in very good hands at this point."