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Jake Ripple, the current athletic director at Dodge City Community College, serves as the men's region director for Region 6. 

Hired as the athletic director at Dodge City Community College in July of 2017, Ripple is in his eighth year as Athletic Director for the Conquistadors. He brought over 20 years of collegiate coaching and athletic administrative experience with him to Dodge City, including more than 12 years in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference.

During his time at Dodge City, Ripple has earned multiple awards, and had several Conquistador sports programs have great success, while also being in involved at the national level in many ways. In 2020 Ripple was named the NACDA Under Armor Two-Year Athletic Director of the Year. At the national level, Ripple has been and is currently involved in several sport committees as he is the NJCAA Football Committee Chair (2020-present), while serving on the NJCAA Wrestling Committee (2019-present) and NJCAA Men's Golf Committee (2020-present). He also serves on the Business of Small College Athletic Advisory Board and is a part of the Mariah Hills Golf Course Advisory board in Dodge City. 

While leading the Dodge City athletic department several Conquistador programs have had success as teams along with student-athletes earning All-Conference, All-Region, All-American, and academic honors. The 2023-24 school year would see the first NJCAA national title in 20 years for Dodge City with men's golfer, Thanaphon Suwannapratheep winning the title, while team finished 11th at nationals. Women's golf recorded a seventh-place finish nationally, while women's basketball finished second in the KJCCC and made NJCAA DI National Tournament for the second-straight and won the program's first national tournament game. Football posted an 8-3 record and finished ranked sixth in the nation winning the school's first-ever bowl game beating New Mexico Military Institute 35-7 in the Wool Bowl. Women's cross country recorded fourth-straight Top 10 finish nationally capping the year with an eighth-place finish, while baseball had their best season since 2017 and track and field had multiple national qualifiers, a couple of region championships, and multiple school records. Cheer repeated as NCA Intermediate Small Coed Junior College National Champions and won the Advanced Small Coed Junior College National Championship. 

The 2022-23 school year saw success for several Conq athletic programs including a historic season for women's basketball as they set school records for wins and KJCCC wins in a season while winning the program's first KJCCC title since 1987-88 and making the programs first-ever national tournament appearance. Men's basketball won the KJCCC title for the second straight year and made a run to the Elite Eight at the national tournament. Men's Golf posted a top 10 finish nationally, while women's cross country raced to eighth place at nationals & men's team finished 17th the highest under the current coach. Cheer also won the Intermediate Small Coed Junior College NCA National Championship, while the Advanced Small Coed Junior College team took third place and the program won their third straight Region 6 Grand Champion title. Several other programs had strong years or continued to improve. 

During the 2021-22 academic year at Dodge City, the men's basketball program put together one of the best seasons in school history finishing 30-5 and winning the Region VI (first in 40 years) and KJCCC titles, qualifying for the National Tournament, and finishing the season with an Elite Eight appearance. The Men's and Women's golf teams have won Region VI titles both in 2018 and the women also won in 2021 and 2022, while both have put together strong performances at Nationals. During his time as AD at Dodge City, he also helped the establishment of a competitive spirit squad team which in their first year of competition in 2021 won the NCA National Championship in the Advanced Small Coed Junior College Division and finished as runner-up in the division in 2022; the program also earned Grand Champion at Region VI Championships in both 2021 and 2022. 

He has been instrumental in facilities updates at Dodge City during his time as AD including a new weight room being built and opened in December 2023, along with updates to an enclosed hitting facility for baseball and softball, renovations to the auxiliary gym for usage for practices and intramural sports. 

Prior to coming to DCCC, Ripple served as the athletic director at Northeast Community College in Norfolk, NE for two years. During Ripple’s time at Northeast the athletic program grew from four teams to seven teams with another slated to start in the 2017-18 school year. This growth was a vision of both the Northeast Community College leadership and the Northeast Board of Governors. Ripple was tasked with the implementation of men’s and women’s soccer and softball during his tenure, as well as the planning and groundwork for the addition of baseball. Also during his tenure, there were two athletic teams that qualified for NJCAA National Tournaments. The women’s basketball team qualified in the spring of 2016 and the women’s volleyball program qualified in the fall of 2016. For the volleyball program, it was the first time they had qualified for an NJCAA National Tournament in 40 years.

Ripple served in two different administrative roles before his time at Northeast. From March of 2009 until September of 2014, he was the assistant athletic director at Garden City Community College. During that time, he served in different roles including the sports information director and the compliance officer for the department. After his time at GCCC, Ripple spent nine months as the Athletic Eligibility and Academic Coordinator at Blinn College. In his role at Blinn, he was responsible for NJCAA compliance as well as advising Buccaneer student-athletes.

Before his time in administration, Ripple was a collegiate women’s basketball coach for 14 years. His final coaching stop was a three year term as the head women’s basketball coach at Garden City Community College. During his time at GCCC, Ripple saw five players receive All-Jayhawk West honors and four players receive NJCAA academic honors. He went to Garden after spending four years as the assistant women’s basketball coach at NCAA Division II institution Southeastern Oklahoma State University. While with the Southeastern program, he was the recruiting coordinator as well as being in charge of the NCAA compliance paperwork for the women’s basketball program.

Ripple spent four years as an assistant in the Jayhawk Conference before moving to Southeastern. He spent one year at Neosho County Community College in 1998-1999 and then spent three years at Barton Community College from 1999-2002. In 2000 the Cougars won the Region VI Championship and placed fifth at the NJCAA National Tournament. Ripple also had the opportunity to coach one NJCAA All-American and five All-Jayhawk West players. He got his start in coaching at Sterling College as a student-assistant coach for the Lady Warrior basketball team. During his three years as a student-assistant Sterling had a combined record of 82 wins and 10 losses and made two trips to the NAIA Division II National Tournament.

Ripple received his undergraduate degree in biology from Sterling College. His Master’s degree is in Health and Human Performance from Ft. Hays State University with an emphasis in athletic administration. He is married to the former Tonja Cassity and they have one daughter, Adison.