Catawba College Baseball Coach Jim Gantt was recently awarded the 2012 Walter Rabb Award, presented annually to the North Carolina Amateur Baseball Coach of the Year. This is the second time that he has been honored with this award; he also received it in 2002.
Gantt's 2012 team went to the 2012 NCAA II College World Series with a 45-17 record, the second most wins in school history. In his 17th year serving as head baseball coach at Catawba.
Gantt's overall record is 565-295. He has guided his teams to seven NCAA II regional appearances, including the 2012 College World Series. His teams have won five SAC Championships and five SAC Tournament titles. He has been named SAC Coach of the year five times.
Gantt also recently received the American Baseball Coaches Association 2012 Coach of the Year Award for the Southeast Region (which includes the South Atlantic Conference, Peach Belt Conference, and the Conference of the Carolinas). That award was made in early January at the ABCA's National Convention in Chicago, Ill.
A modest Gantt downplayed the awards he received. "If we didn't have assistant coaches who worked hard, are good at their jobs, and who we could trust, and players who prepare and perform, there would be no awards. Basically these are their awards," he said.
A 1989 alumnus of Catawba who majored in sports management, Gantt is married to the former Adrian Whitley '98. The two are parents of 13-month-old daughter, Blakley, whose favorite toy, Gantt proudly reports, is a ball.
Gantt's team plays its first games of the season at home on Feb. 2.
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