Baseball: Gantt ready for another college season, but steps down from Legion

By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Jim Gantt marvels at the energy of the 20-year-olds he coaches on the Catawba College baseball team.

“They’re a little crazy,” Gantt said. “They’ll work hard for two hours indoors, and they’ll still want to do some throwing outdoors or go hit in the outdoor cages. Never mind that it’s 20 degrees, with the wind blowing. Way too cold for me, but not for them. It’s good to be young.”

Another Catawba baseball season officially begins on Jan. 31, down in Florida, with the Indians well-stocked and expected to be a power in the region and the nation again. The roster is loaded with players who played for Gantt as members of the Rowan County American Legion team, including potential All-Americans such as right fielder Dylan Driver and pitcher Hayden Simmerson.

“Legion baseball has definitely helped us recruit for Catawba,” Gantt said.

Gantt came from Newton-Conover 40 years ago to play third base for the Indians. He graduated from Catawba in 1989 with a sports management degree and stayed in Salisbury. This will be his 29th season as a college head coach. He has 990 career victories, so his current players will get to help him celebrate No. 1,000 in February.

Gantt also coached Rowan County American Legion baseball forever. It’s easy to forget he was an assistant coach to the late Jim DeHart for 10 years (the 1996 team went to the World Series in Oregon after winning the regional championship at Newman Park) before he was named the storied program’s head coach prior to the 2001 season.

Gantt won’t be back in that Legion coaching role this summer.

“I’ve loved coaching Legion baseball at Newman Park, have loved everything about it,” Gantt said. “But it was not a hard decision at all for me to make. When my daughter (Blakley) asked my wife (Adrian) and me to coach her softball team this summer, well, that was a pretty easy decision. Family has to come first. A few years from now, she’ll be driving and my life as her dad is going to change a lot. Adrian and I don’t want to miss this chance to coach her.”

Gantt been going to Newman Park for summer Legion ball for more than 30 years now, so his life will be different. It will be a while before he can think about Legion ball in the past tense.

“As sure as the sunrise came up, I always knew what I was going to be doing and where I was going to be every summer night for a whole lot of years,” he said. “Sure, I’ll miss it. I know I will.”

Gantt followed two legends (Joe Ferebee and DeHart) at the helm of Rowan Legion and became a legend himself. He’s in the Catawba Sports Hall of Fame, the Salisbury-Rowan Hall of Fame and the North Carolina American Legion Hall of Fame.

He helped maintain Rowan County’s place as one of the state’s flagship American Legion programs. If you name the state’s elite programs, Rowan is still on the list. Richard Walker’s Carolina Sports Hub lists Rowan County as the state’s all-time leader, with the program closing in on 2,000 victories.

Gantt coached Legion teams built around East Rowan players, teams built around West Rowan players, and teams built around Carson players. He’s even had good teams that relied heavily on homeschool players. Rowan has continued to win over the decades, even as the struggle to attract players has gotten more challenging every year.

“Legion is never going to be what it once was,” Gantt said. “You’re not going to have the Kyle Seager-type guys playing Legion ball. But it still can be a really good thing for the players, the coaches, the fans and the community. When you play Legion baseball, you’re playing for the veterans, you’re playing for your teammates and you’re playing for your community. You’re playing for a lot of things that matter.”

Gantt’s second Legion team in 2002 was 43-2 and had the best winning percentage in program history.

A Legion state tournament, bringing together eight elite teams at one site was a concept that originated in 2000. DeHart’s Rowan team was there.

Gantt led 13 teams to that tournament, including four — 2002, 2009, 2015 and 2016 — that won state championships. The 2009 and 2016 teams were regional champions and played in the World Series.

The 2009 team finished third in Fargo, N.D., while the 2016 team was runner-up, losing a 12-inning championship game in Shelby. Rowan was one pitch, one play, one swing from winning it all.

In all, Gantt coached exactly 900 Rowan American Legion games, with 667 wins and 233 losses. His teams won 74 percent of the time.

The Legion wins Gantt is credited with don’t include the COVID season of 2020, when Legion baseball was officially canceled, but Rowan pieced together a competitive team and went 23-8 while playing “NC3” baseball.

Legion staged a slow comeback in 2021 with a late start due to the extended high school season. Rowan County games were played at Staton Field with Newman Park being renovated.

Legion, which can trace its roots in Salisbury back to 1936, has returned to normal now, and Gantt is happy to be turning the reins over to Seth Graham, who has been his right-hand man with the Legion team for a dozen years.

Graham has been head coach at West Rowan High for a decade and has served as acting head coach whenever Gantt was still busy with Catawba when a Legion season started.

“Seth is a great person and a great coach and he’s been a great provider of players for the Legion program,” Gantt said. “He’s someone who is a baseball coach for all the right reasons.”

Graham, who has college coaching experience, has been very successful at West Rowan and was the logical choice to follow Gantt.

“I’m extremely honored to have been given this opportunity to lead the program,” Graham said. “It’s one of the most historic programs in the state, and I look forward to the challenge of continuing that great tradition.”

Graham said the biggest obstacle for Legion ball is getting the right players to play. He’s already started working on that.

“There’s a lot of baseball talent in our county and in our area, and we have the potential to continue to have very good teams,” he said. “We’re already getting interest from players at several schools. Hopefully, more will follow suit.”

Rowan County American Legion, during Jim Gantt’s tenure as head coach:

• 2001: 36-9   

• 2002: 43-2

• 2003: 16-12

• 2004: 23-18

• 2005: 19-8

• 2006: 24-10

• 2007: 40-8

• 2008: 34-16

• 2009: 39-10

• 2010: 30-13

• 2011: 25-10

• 2012: 20-20

• 2013: 22-10

• 2014: 24-9

• 2015: 32-8

• 2016: 41-13

• 2017: 33-5

• 2018: 33-12

• 2019: 23-13

• *2020: COVID, “NC3” 23-8

• 2021: 16-6

• 2022: 36-9

• 2023: 40-7

• 2024: 16-13

• Overall record: 667-233

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