Former Tivy, Geneva coach stepping down from coaching – probably
After 45 years, Steve Rippee has decided to hang up the whistle.
Rippee wrapped up the 2025 baseball season at Geneva School of Boerne last May and when the Eagles were knocked out of the playoffs, he said it was time to step away from coaching.
So far, Rippee, 75, is pretty sure he’s made the right decision.
“I say I’m done, but I’ve said that many times before and came back,” he said. “I already got a job offer but I don't think I'm going to take it. My wife has been retired for a number of years, and she told me, ‘it’s time for you to retire.’” Rippee’s has had coaching stops all over Texas during his 45-year career. Somewhere in the last five decades, he left coaching completely for five years and worked in the oil business before getting back into it.
After playing and graduating from Lubbock Christian University, he’s had coaching stints at Lamesa, Atlanta, Mt. Pleasant, Texarkana, Texas High, Katy Taylor, Kerrville Tivy and Geneva. He won a state baseball title as an assistant coach at Mt. Pleasant in 1978.
His longest stay was just up the road from Boerne at Kerrville Tivy where he coached for 24 years. It’s where his two children graduated from high school and where Rippee still resides.
Rippee’s daughter lives in San Antonio but his son lives in Waco and those grandchildren are playing baseball and softball and he would like to go catch a few more games than he does now.
“It’s a chance to watch my grandkids more and spend time with them,” said Rippee, who added that he’ll still be based in Kerrville. “They’re both in select baseball and softball and they play year-round, so I felt like I needed to be able to go and watch them as much as possible.”
Rippee coached the Antlers from 1990 to 2014 and had a lot of success there, getting to the regional finals twice.
When he retired from Tivy, he thought he was done then, but he ended up coaching at TAPPS Our Lady of the Hills in Kerrville for a year and then spent two years at Ingram before coaching the last six years at Geneva.
Rippee said he coached more than a decade after his initial retirement because he enjoyed being on the field and passing along his knowledge of the game.
“The kids kept me young,” he said. “You have to stay active.”
Rippee’s best year at Geneva came in 2023 after the Eagles finished the season at 28-5 and lost in
the TAPPS state semis to Cypress Christian, 6-5.
When he retired from Kerrville, he had a record of 460-283-10. Rippee’s said he’s not sure what the total number of losses are at now, but knows he leaves the game with 563 wins, so he picked up more than 100 victories since his initial retirement from Kerrville Tivy.
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Current Geneva athletic director Trent Nesmith, who has a collegiate baseball background, will take over for the Eagles next spring, and Rippee said the program is in good hands. Rippee added that he’s had a great time at Geneva where he also spent four seasons helping coach the football team.
“(Before coming to Geneva) I hadn’t coached in the private school, except one year at Our Lady of the Hills, so I didn’t know what to expect and what kind of kids I would see, but I was pleasantly surprised at how good the kids were,” he said. “They were coachable and worked hard and did what you asked them to do. They were special kids, and they did a tremendous job.”
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