The 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award recipients include:
- Young Alumni Award for Service – Christopher Gratton ‘15
- Young Alumni Award for Career Development - Leslie Brooke Long-Stutts '14
- Distinguished Alumni Award for Service - Jim Gantt '89
- Distinguished Alumni Award for Career Achievement – James (Jim) Baker '78
- Catawba Black Alumni Pioneer Award - Elijah Sharpless, Jr. '80
Christopher Gratton '15
The Young Alumni Award for Service is given to an alumnus for exceptional service to the College and Community.
Gratton graduated in 2015 with a BS in Business Administration, concentrating in Information Systems. He has held numerous leadership roles, including Catawba's first Director of the Theological Institute (DISCOVER) under Dr. Kenneth Clap's leadership. He also served over six years on staff with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) in Rowan County and for the City of Charlotte as the Regional Director of International Advancement with South Asia.
His career aligns with his vocational calling found in Jesus' words: "Go make disciples of all nations, teaching them all that Jesus commanded" (Mt. 28:19-20 paraphrased). Since 2018, Gratton has traveled to over seven countries, serving local and global communities through organized missional efforts via sports expeditions (such as the 2018 World Lacrosse games in Israel), educational camps in Ukraine and Thailand, and musical worship services primarily in Malaysia, Chiang Mai (Thailand), and Japan.
Gratton was active in the Dead Athenian Society (DAS), inducted into the Ketner School of Business Honor Society, participated in the Order of the Blue and the White, and briefly played under Coach Peter Borque's stewardship of the Men's Lacrosse team. Currently, he serves as the Director of Media, Music, and Missions at Town Creek Baptist Church in Aiken, SC, where he is married to his beloved best friend and world traveler, MaKenzie Marie."
Leslie Brooke Long-Stutts '14
The Young Alumni Award for Career Development is given to an alumnus for quickly developing success in their career field.
Leslie Long-Stutts is a native of East Bend, NC, a small town about 40 miles north of Salisbury. She came to Catawba in 2010 on a golf scholarship and competed in every match for four years. She graduated in 2014 with a degree in Physical Education.
After graduation, she moved back to East Bend, where she was a long-term substitute, Head Women’s Golf Coach, and Assistant Softball Coach at her alma mater, Forbush High School.
In 2017, Long-Stutts was hired as the Head Softball Coach and Assistant Volleyball Coach at Atkins High School and as a Teacher’s Assistant at Lowrance Middle School for students with special needs.
In 2018 she was hired at Atkins as a Health and Physical Education teacher and added Head Men’s Swim Coach to her coaching duties.
In 2019, she was promoted to Assistant Athletic Director and served as Interim Athletic Director at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. As Interim Athletic Director, Long-Stutts was tasked with navigating the guidelines for returning to sports from October 2020 to February 2021.
Having demonstrated excellent leadership and the ability to handle one of the most stressful times in sports, she was promoted to Athletic Director at Atkins High School in February 2021.
Long-Stutts continues demonstrating her dedication to her athletes, coaches, and school. In March 2023, she received the Citation Award for Significant Contribution and Continued Growth and Personal and Program Development from the North Carolina Athletic Directors Association.
She currently lives in Clemmons, NC, with her wife Natalie, 5-month-old son Reid, and dog Finn.
Jim Gantt '89
The Distinguished Alumni Award for Service is given to an alumnus for providing extraordinary service to their community and demonstrating leadership to the College.
Jim Gantt enters his 29th season as the head baseball coach at Catawba College in the spring of 2025. Gantt became the head coach of the Catawba College baseball program in the summer of 1996 and was inducted into the Catawba Sports Hall of Fame in 2015. In 2012, Gantt was named the ABCA Southeast Region Coach of the Year and the North Carolina Amateur Coach of the Year as he guided the team to the NCAA II National Finals, where Catawba finished fourth in the nation. Gantt earned ABCA Region Coach of the Year honors in 2019 and 2024.
In 2015, Catawba returned to the National Finals and finished as the national runner-up, equaling the school record with 47 wins. The 2019 team became Gantt’s third squad to claim a regional title and advance to the National Finals, equaling the record of 47 wins.
The Catawba Indians again went to the national semifinals in 2024 after earning the 2024 SAC regular season title and the number one seed in the Southeast Regional, hosting the Regional Tournament for the first time in program history. Gantt's squad ended the year ranked third in the country in both ABCA and NCBWA polls. Payne Stolsworth earned SAC Pitcher of the Year honors, and Hayden Simmerson was SAC Freshman of the Year. Gantt was named SAC Coach of the Year for a league-record 12th time.
Entering the 2025 season, Gantt has won a SAC-record 990 games at Catawba, ranking among the top 25 active NCAA baseball coaches and eighth among active Division II head coaches. Catawba has produced ten 40-win seasons since 2004. Catawba has made 14 appearances in NCAA II Regional play. Gantt has a career record of 990-501, guiding Catawba to 26 championships.
Gantt was honored as South Atlantic Conference Coach of the Year for the 11th time in 2021 after guiding Catawba to an unprecedented sixth-straight conference championship. He was also named the league Coach of the Year in 2018, 2017, 2016, 2014, and 2013, leading Catawba to championships. He earned the honor in 2011 as the Catawba Indians garnered a SAC regular season championship at 41-15 and advanced to the regionals for the fourth consecutive year.
In 2008, he earned SAC Coach of the Year as Catawba claimed a SAC Championship. The squad advanced to the NCAA II South Region Championship game and posted a 43-18 mark. He was named the 2006 SAC Coach of the Year after the Tribe went 47-14. Catawba won both the SAC regular season and tournament titles and advanced to the NCAA II South Region Championship game. The Catawba Indians were ranked as high as #2 in the nation.
Gantt also earned SAC Coach of the Year honors in 2004 after guiding the Indians to a then-school record 42 wins, including its first-ever berth in the NCAA II Regionals. In 2005, Catawba won the SAC title and went 35-19. The 1997 squad, his first as head coach, equaled the then second-most win total with 32. Gantt also led the Catawba Indians to the 2002 SAC Tournament title and was named SAC Coach of the Year for the first time in 1999.
As an assistant for seven seasons, Gantt was a key part of Catawba’s five straight seasons with at least 27 wins from 1991-95. Catawba won back-to-back South Atlantic Conference championships in 1992-93 and were a perfect 21-0 in league games in 1992 (38-7 overall). He currently serves as the coach of Rowan County’s successful American Legion team, guiding the team to several World Series appearances, including a national runner-up finish in 2016.
In 2015, Gantt was inducted into the North Carolina American Legion Hall of Fame. He was named the North Carolina Amateur Coach of the Year in 2002 after guiding Rowan to a 43-2 record and a state championship. As an assistant, he helped the legion team to the 1996 Southeast Regional Championship, advancing to the World Series in Roseburg, Oregon.
Gantt, who graduated from Catawba in May 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in sports management, had an outstanding four-year career as a player for the Indians. As a third baseman, he was an all-conference performer and helped Catawba to the 1988 Carolinas Conference championship and the NAIA District 26 Tournament. Gantt was an all-conference player at Newton-Conover (NC) High School before graduating in 1984.
Gantt resides in Salisbury with his wife, Adrian, and their daughter, Blakley. Adrian, a 1998 Catawba alum, served as head field hockey coach and assistant softball coach before joining Jim in the Catawba Hall of Fame in 2017.
Jim Baker '78
The Distinguished Alumni Award for Career Achievement is given to an alumnus for providing leadership or attaining recognition on a national or regional level within their profession.
Baker graduated from North Rowan in 1974 and Catawba College in 1978. He played on the JV team at UNC-Charlotte and transferred to Catawba in 1976. During his Catawba playing career, Catawba went back-to-back 20 wins and won the Carolina Conference Regular Season.
After graduation, Baker worked as an assistant basketball coach at Catawba, Wingate, and Belmont Abbey.
He then worked as an assistant coach at Davidson, Virginia Tech, and VMI for a total of 12 years before returning to Catawba in 1993 and assisting Coach Sam Moir for a year.
In 1994, Baker was named head coach for Catawba men's basketball and held the position for 20 seasons (starting 1994-95 through 2013-14.). His teams won 344 games and lost 236 with a winning 59 percent. They also won six SAC Regular Season Championships and six SAC Tournament champs. Baker’s Catawba teams recorded a 24-11 record in the SAC Tournament. His Catawba teams made nine NCAA Regionals. Baker either played or coached in 13 of the 28 total championships the Catawba College basketball program won. 64 of 68 of his senior basketball players graduated from Catawba. Five of Jim’s basketball players are in or will soon be inducted into the Catawba College Sports Hall of Fame. Baker was SAC Coach of the Year five times and 1998 South Atlantic District Coach of the Year.
Baker also had a remarkable run at Central Cabarrus HS. The Vikings lost one game in 2021-22 and were the undefeated NC 3A state champions in the 2022-23 season and again in the 2023-24 season. The combined three-year record is 95 and 1. The Vikings have the nation’s longest high school basketball win streak at 65 and have ranked in the top twenty in multiple national polls over the last three years. Over the past four seasons, Baker has earned 12 Coach of the Year honors, including back-to-back NC High School Basketball Coaches Coach of the Year, HighSchoolOT 2023 NC Male Coach of the Year, and the 2023 National Federation Coaches Association NC Basketball Coach of the Year.
Baker was inducted into the Catawba College Sports Hall of Fame in 2021 and inducted into the Salisbury-Rowan Sports Hall of Fame in 2024.On August 1, Baker became the Head Basketball Coach at the Cannon School in Concord.
Baker and his wife Tina have four children: Jamie (Assistant Basketball Coach at Kennesaw State), Madison (Coach and Director of Media Relations at Gotham Gymnastics in Brooklyn, NY), Hannah (a senior gymnast at Converse University in Spartanburg, SC), and Jake (a three-year member of the Central Cabarrus team and currently a senior at Cannon School).
Elijah Sharpless, Jr. ‘90
The Catawba Black Alumni Pioneer Award is given to an alumnus who has served their community, distinguished themselves in their profession, and served the Catawba College community.
Elijah Sharpless, Jr., is from a small town called Maple Hill, North Carolina, near Jacksonville. He attended Dixon High School in Holly Ridge, NC, and had a scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he attended from 1984 to 1086. Sharpless transferred to Catawba College in 1987, where he graduated in 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Physical Education and Health.
Sharpless has been at Monarch for six years as the Care Management Director for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD). He provides clinical, administrative, and operations supervision and guidance to the Care Management teams to achieve key goals of Behavioral Health and Intellectual and Developmental Disability Tailored Plans. He manages five teams that serve close to 300 members with intellectual development disabilities or traumatic brain injuries. His service area includes the counties of Wake, Nash, Johnston, Guilford, Forsyth, Stokes, Davidson, Chatham, Orange, and Edgecombe. His teams are making a difference in people’s lives by connecting them with IDD and mental health services within their communities.
At Catawba, Sharpless was part of the 1986 track and 1988 SAC-8 Conference Championship football teams.
Sharpless is a member of the Catawba Black Alumni Network (CBAN) and an active member of Faith Encounters Community Church. Sharpless is often on the Catawba campus, connecting with current students and encouraging their ambitions for life after Catawba.
Sharpless has one son, Brendan Foil, and two daughters, Petyon Foil and Isabella Sharpless.
Photo left to right: Jim Gantt, Jim Baker, Elijah Sharpless, Jr, Christopher Gratton, and Leslie Brooke Long-Stutts
