Ron Raver’s life was typical of a youngster growing up in the 1940s and early 1950s. He lived on a farm in Oldenburg, Indiana. He attended eighth grade in Oldenburg and then went to Batesville High School just a few miles away.
In high school Ron ran track, played baseball and basketball, all at the varsity level. Cross country was not offered. His main events in track were the 440-yard dash, high jump and the mile relay.
Ron double majored at Purdue in agriculture and science. For most of his career he was a high school chemistry, anatomy and physiology teacher. He taught high school from 1964-1997. He received his first job in teaching only because he was willing to coach junior high basketball. As they say, the rest is history.
Ron began his coaching career in 1964 and became a head coach in cross country and track in 1966. When he retired from teaching, he stopped coaching cross country. However, he has been volunteering as a track coach since then. Last spring, he completed his 58th track season.
Ron’s teams had many conference championships-including 11 in a row in cross country. Sectional championships were harder to come by because there were no class divisions. However, there were many individuals who would advance. In 1978, Batesville had nine runners competing at the Indiana Intercollegiate Cross Country Championship.
In the early 1990s he became part of the Indiana Association of Track & Cross Country Coaches at the state level and this became a big part of his coaching career. He is still involved today. Even though he never coached at a school with more than 600 students, approximately 50 of his athletes competed at the next level and at least four of them were All-Americans. In track, he had many individuals who finished in the state Top 10.
In 1972, Ron married Sally Given, and they have one daughter, Gina, who followed in her father’s footsteps coaching track.