Jesse Labreck wasn’t always an American Ninja Warrior.
Before the decorated contestant from the long-running TV show had achieved national success on the obstacle course, she was setting the pace on the track in her home state of Maine.
Labreck was a star runner at Messalonskee High School in Oakland before going on to set 10 track records at the University of Maine. And as she gets set to officially join the Maine Sports Hall of Fame at an induction ceremony on Sunday in Bangor, Labreck has also been enjoying a homecoming this year.
After years living in Illinois, the Ninja Warrior known as “Flex” Labreck has moved back to Maine with her family. She is now the manager and head coach at the Alfond Youth & Community Center’s NinjAdventure zone in Waterville, a role she has had for about six months.
“I love bringing Ninja back home because essentially that’s the whole reason that I moved away — is that I wanted to train for ‘American Ninja Warrior,’ and there was no place to train for it,” Labreck said on Monday. “So having this here, and having it in my hometown, it’s so fun because I get to bring something that I think is really good for kids and adults to learn how to do.”
The NinjAdventure zone is a gym and obstacle course that offers pre-K and youth ninja classes, along with open gym sessions for adults.
Labreck said the training helps people build both strength and confidence. She showed plenty of both during her high school, college and Ninja Warrior careers.
She won four state championship events in high school, according to the Maine Sports Hall of Fame, and won a staggering five events at the 2010 America East Outdoor Track Championships (100 meter hurdles, 4×400 meter relay, high jump, long jump and triple jump).
That athleticism and versatility would go on to serve her well during her repeated participation as part of the “American Ninja Warrior” show, where she and other competitors sought to complete various obstacle courses. She successfully completed 10 courses as part of the show and set a female record, according to the Hall of Fame.
Labreck said her experiences as a track athlete in high school in college prepared her well for those courses.
“I think it just kind of showed me how much effort and determination it takes to put yourself at a higher level of competing,” she said. “And it gave me the experience, too, where it’s you against the course.”
She said she always approached track as a race against herself and improving on her personal records, and she took a similar mindset into “American Ninja Warrior” events.
“You’re competing against others, but when it comes down to it, it’s really you against the course,” Labreck said.
She also credited her UMaine coach Dave Cusano and Waterville High School indoor coach Ian Wilson for helping to develop that mindset. Messolonski didn’t have an indoor track program, so Labreck ran with Waterville during that season, she said. Wilson is now the Director of Track & Field and Cross Country at Thomas College, and Cusano is now the Head Track and Field Power Coach at Colby College.
And while fellow runners in high school and college will surely remember the name Jesse Labreck, her competitors on the Ninja Warrior course know her by a different moniker.
That “Flex” name came about thanks to a couple of training friends early in her Ninja Warrior ascent. Those friends had included a flex emoji as part of her name in their phone contacts, which eventually turned into a nickname.
Labreck wasn’t exactly a fan at first.
“I actually hated it,” she said about her Ninja name, thinking it was conceited at its inception.
But it grew on her, especially when the “American Ninja Warrior” show suggested a different nickname she liked even less.
She was a nanny at the time, and the show wanted to call her “Ninja Nanny,” she said.
Labreck thought that sounded like a name for a grandmother, so she learned to love “Flex” as an alternative. It also served to help distinguish her from another Ninja Warrior, Jessie Graff.
And while it took her a while to come around on her nickname, Labreck’s excitement about being inducted into the Maine Sports Hall of Fame is immediately clear.
“I mean, it’s such a huge honor,” she said.
Labreck spent her first 26 years in Maine before leaving in search of Ninja Warrior training opportunities, and the Pine Tree State has a special place in her heart.
“So just the fact that I’m being honored for the state of Maine, it means so much and it’s a lot,” Labreck said. “It’s just really cool to be selected.”
The Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place at 2 p.m. Sunday at Husson University in Bangor. The ticketed event will honor 10 different Maine sporting figures.
