Ted Ahaus (South Ripley)The 1980’s and South Ripley boys basketball went hand-in-hand and a dominant era of hoops for the green and white was kickstarted by head coach Ted Ahaus.

 

After three years at the junior varsity ranks, Coach Ahaus took the reins of the varsity program beginning in the fall of 1978 from prior head coach Stan Weber and finished his tenure in 1985 with an overall record of 80-73. In those seven years, the Raiders were not only a three-time Ohio River Valley Conference champion, but also boasted two of the school’s greatest teams. The 1981 version of the green and white took home county and ORVC titles before beating Batesville, Jac-Cen-Del and Milan to win the single-class sectional championship. One week later, South Ripley would clip both Greensburg and Lawrenceburg at the Spartan Bowl in Connersville to hoist a regional trophy for the first time since 1970. It remains just one of two regional crowns in program history.

 

Coach Ahaus’s team would march to the semi-state at Hinkle Fieldhouse, falling to Shenandoah in game one which wrapped up an incredible 21-5 campaign. One season later, the Raiders shocked many by beating Jac-Cen-Del and East Central to win a second-straight sectional title after entering the postseason with just a 10-10 overall record. South Ripley then took Lawrenceburg to triple overtime in the Connersville Regional before falling to the Tigers in the semifinals.

 

Away from basketball, Coach Ahaus served 12 years as South Ripley’s varsity baseball coach and led that program to two conference championships and a pair of sectional titles in 1981 and 1987. He also served in administrative roles inside the school corporation for a combined 25 years which included time as athletic director, assistant principal, principal and superintendent. A 1970 graduate of North Dearborn High School, Mr. Ahaus was an inaugural inductee into the East Central Athletic Hall of Fame in 2014 and was also a member of the inaugural Hall of Fame class at Marian College in 1999 after a collegiate baseball career at the school which saw him set several school records, be named a three-time Team MVP and a member of the 1974 NAIAAll-America Team.

 

Mr. Ahaus in 2025 also was recognized alongside his son Steve as members of the next induction class to the South Ripley Athletic Hall of Fame. Coach Ahaus and his wife Vicki also have two daughters, Lisa (Ahaus) Guthrie and Beth (Ahaus) Brewer and the family continues to be a supporter of high school athletics in Ripley County.