Taylor Gantt has certainly found his way to success after arriving in Santa Fe

It was a national holiday, it was Memorial Day weekend when the Gantts — Taylor, Rachel, Erin and Aiden — first arrived in Santa Fe. It was the year 2005, Taylor and Rachel had met in high school while in Colorado, later married and attended Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, South Dakota.

Their daughter Erin was now 6 and her brother Aiden was four. The youngest, Cameren, was not born yet, and if you flash ahead to today, she’s now a a freshman at St. Michael’s on the varsity soccer team, where Erin played, and where Aiden played baseball.

And back in ’05, papa Taylor had read that there was an opening in the administrative office at the College of San Fe, where there had been a number of successful athletic programs in the past, but as he learned after he applied and was hired long distance, no sports there now, only students and administrative programs.

So he settled in behind the desk, and for two years had thoughts of perhaps bringing back athletics to the school off of St. Michael’s Drive. There was always talk, but nothing accomplished. But Taylor, a four-sport athlete back at Thomas Jefferson High School in Denver, Colo., and where he first met Rachel, was persistent and with a preference to coach baseball.

“I contacted the board members at the college,” he says, “and submitted a list of possible athletic programs — baseball, softball, golf, tennis and men’s and women’s soccer — and after they were accepted, I was named the head baseball coach, and in 2007, I began recruiting.”

Meanwhile, Rachel was hired to assist head coach Steve Rogers with the Academy of Technology and The Classics cross country and track and field teams, but it was nowhere as grueling as her husband’s adventureous season with the baseball team.

“Well,” Taylor says, “we had two vans, 13 players, played in 46 games, 42 on the road, traveled to Texas, Colorado, Arizona and Oklahoma, and played College of the Southwest in Hobbs eight times, and only twice at home. We also had 15 players at one time, but had to drop two because of limited space in the vans. We won six and lost 40, and played some home games at Capital High.”

But 2008 was not a full season, only 2009 was, and except for men’s soccer, only baseball survived. Both got in one full campaign, but there were not enough who turned out for softball, golf, tennis and women’s soccer.

Which in his high school days, turning out, showing up was never a problem for Taylor as he played in 183 of the 186 baseball games over four seasons.

“I played third base as a freshman and sophomore, and shortstop as a junior and senior,” he says. “When I played third, we won, when I played short, we lost. I also played varsity soccer and tennis in high school, and was an assistant baseball coach there for two years.”

At age 19, he and Rachel got married. They were both busy thinking about their futures, but found the time to include romance.

Except this didn’t include a successful return to sports for the College of Santa Fe. So after moving on down the road to St. Michael’s as a substitute teacher, he was later named the head baseball coach of the Horsemen after then head coach Ed Duran was not rehired.

“That was good,” Taylor says, “it was something I was hoping for, especially in baseball, and I had two good years, losing in the 2010 state final to Bloomfield, and in 2011 to Silver City in the state quarterfinals.”

But despite piecing together a pair of winning teams, St. Michael’s took advantage of his versatility and named him the school’s director of advancement. No more baseball practices, pep talks, traveling, that were replaced by his own private office across from principal Sam Govea and down the hall from head men’s basketball coach Ron Geyer. Good position to learn more day-by-day knowledge of the private school.

But once again, that versatility stepped in. When the vacant position of school president was announced, it was something else that Taylor was able to add to a resume he had put together while still in his youth. It was the spring of 2014, he applied, was selected, and down the hall he went to a new office. Erin and Aiden could now walk the halls with a former substitute teacher, head baseball coach, director of advancement, and now the president.

“It was very fundamental,” says Taylor. “I was involved in admissions, marketing, helping to set up a new six-lane track around the football field, renovate some of the buildings, and helping increase the enrollment.”

Plus, he found time to watch Erin on the soccer field and Aiden playing baseball. Last soccer season he got to taking in girl’s soccer as Cameren, then an eighth-grader, played defense. Now Erin heads into her senior year at University of Georgia in Athens, and Aidenwill be a sophomore at Grand Canyon in Phoenix, Ariz.

But their father now found something new after seeing that United World College USA, 74 miles down I-25 East near by Las Vegas, N.M., was announcing online the need to hire a chief financial and operations officer, with the main focus on finances. Taylor applied via online, he was hired over the phone, and began this new challenge on July 6. United World College USA also has other campuses, and Taylor has just begun to learn more about his position and of the school’s many academic programs.

“Rachel is very excited about this,” he says. “I already have a room set up for me on campus, I can go back and forth to where we live in the St. Michael’s area, and also take in some of the Horsemen and Lady Horsemen athletics while I still have a student there, and so I’m still very much in contact with the school.”

And being a bundle of versatility, Taylor is happy to apply all of it.

Just follow his road after his arrival in the City Different. Just follow the bouncing ball. Administrator at College of Santa Fe College was followed by head baseball coach there although falling short in trying to restore athletics, moving on to St. Michael’s as a substitute teacher, head baseball coach, director of advancement, president, and now in a new role with a college that stresses academics and cancels out athletics.

. . . Just a short on Dakota Wesleyan, whose campus is listed on the national register of historic places, and can boast of historic Mount Rushmore. Its alumni list is headed by former South Dakota Democratic Senator George McGovern, who ran and lost in a presidential campaign against Richard M. Nixon.