Taylor Miller stands in front of the future Colorado Fitness location. (Photo by Alex McCrindle)

On Oct. 27, the Los Angeles Dodgers first-baseman Freddie Freeman ended an 18-inning, 7-hour World Series game 3 with a walk-off rocket to center field. Los Angeles Head Coach Dave Roberts called it “one of the greatest World Series games of all time,” as the Dodgers are now two-wins away from their second consecutive world title. But to one Gunnison local, the Dodgers aren’t just a collection of global superstars — they’re friends, former colleagues and part of a tight-knit clubhouse he once knew well. 

For the past three years, Gunnison native Taylor Miller served as the Triple A Assistant MiLB Performance Coach with the Dodgers organization. He helped rehabilitate World Series stars, such as pitchers Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Walker Buehler and infielders Tommy Edman and Max Muncy in route to the 2024 championship. Now with a World Series ring to his name, Miller is returning to the Gunnison Valley and re-opening Colorado Fitness — a new gym, kitted out with big-league “bells and whistles” but built with the Gunnison community in mind.

“Colorado Fitness is a place for everyone,” Miller said. “If your goal is to lose weight, to build muscle, to prevent skiing injuries, to be a better mountain biker — if it’s to compete in weightlifting competitions, if you’re a college athlete, professional athlete — this is a place where everyone should feel welcome.”

Colorado Fitness, formerly located at 405 W. Tomichi Ave., closed in 2022 after more than 20 years of operation. Miller considered purchasing the old business, but lived out-of-state at the time and couldn’t make his passion project a reality. The new Colorado Fitness will be located at 881 Bidwell, Unit B and will be open 24/7 for members through a bluetooth app.

The facility will include modern physiotherapy tools, such as force plates, blood-flow restriction technology and movement screens. Combined with individualized training, these resources will give athletes new insight into their fitness, injury risks and development plans. In the big leagues, Miller said athletes come into the gym on their own schedules and the coaching staff is there to provide support. Similarly, Colorado Fitness will incorporate an “open gym,” culture, where members can work out at specific time slots and receive consultation and programming from on-site trainers.

The new facility will open on Dec. 1 with a hard-launch celebration featuring live music, fitness presentations and food.

But long before Miller resurrected Colorado Fitness, or climbed the ladder as a performance coach, he starred as the starting centerfielder and quarterback for the GHS baseball and football teams. After graduating in 2014 and being “too stubborn” to choose between his two passions, Miller pursued both sports at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. 

The year after, he followed his freshman football coach to Southern Utah University, but only played one season of D1 football before tearing both of his hamstrings. Sidelined with injury, Miller sent out emails to other collegiate programs, hoping they would take a chance on an injured athlete. He only received a single response. It was from Western Colorado University, so Miller moved back home. 

While at Western, Miller stepped away from the gridiron, but fell back in love with baseball. He joined the club baseball team, ran the GHS weight room and helped train the high school varsity team. Before earning his bachelor’s degree, Miller met Todd Ward, the former sports medicine director at Gunnison Valley Health, who convinced him to pursue his master’s degree. 

For the next handful of years, Miller worked alongside Ward at GVH, took on a performance training role with the Western NCAA teams and accepted the head coaching position with the Mountaineer club baseball team. On top of it all, he completed his masters thesis.

“I look back on two of my coaches, and they are two of the biggest reasons why I coach,” Miller said. “Tom Percival, who is still the head baseball coach at GHS, really planted that seed of pushing myself and loving baseball. Brandon Haas was a Western football player at the time and helped out in the weight room. He taught me about delayed gratification and how to invest in my future self.”

Armed with a masters degree in exercise sport science, Miller applied for nearly 150 collegiate programs. Louisiana State University called him the following day, and within a few weeks, he started up the car and headed to Baton Rouge as a strength and conditioning intern. While working with the Tigers, Miller spent 90% of his time with one of the top-ranked NCAA baseball programs in the nation. He spent the other 10% training the football program, and working alongside now NFL superstars Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase. Although initially signed on as a “shadow intern,” Miller helped develop a red shirt program that prepared underclassmen and oversaw rehabilitation and injury development.

Miller’s experience at LSU prepared him for a career in strength and conditioning coaching at nearly any Power Five university. But when LSU baseball strength and conditioning coach Travis Roy asked him what he wanted to do next, Miller said what most childhood baseball fanatics only dream of: “I want to go to the show.” He began a grueling application and interview process and competed against nearly 1,500 applicants, but still, the Gunnison kid earned his spot with the Dodgers organization.

“I moved down to Phoenix for the offseason, and was thrown right in with the wolves,” Miller said. “We had over 60 minor league guys there when I first got there, and I was like a deer in the headlights. I walked into the weight room and was just like, ‘There’s Julio Urias, there’s Walker Buehler,’ and you’re just awestruck — and then I realize, ‘I’m the one that’s supposed to help coach these guys.’”

In his first season, Miller worked as the Single A MiLB performance coach, and spent the majority of his time helping with major league rehabilitations in Rancho Cucamonga, California. But he still got his first glimpse of the big-league lights at Dodger Stadium. Miller worked 24 games with the major league squad that year — and on his very first day with the Dodgers, worked one-on-one with three-time Cy Young Award-winning pitcher Clayton Kershaw, who coincidentally knows the Gunnison Valley well.

After two years, Miller earned a promotion and moved to Oklahoma City with the Triple A side. There, he played a major role in the rehabilitation of big league players like Yamamoto, Edmond and Buehler. In total, Miller oversaw six players who made the leap back to the show for the world-series winning campaign. 

But it was the friendships he made inside the clubhouse —  playing Rocket League with Cody Bellinger, talking about snowboarding, fishing and topics away from baseball — that helped take the players’ minds away from the “circus” of the major leagues.

“My connection with the players is what I think helped me skyrocket within pro ball — I was able to build a connection and be relatable,” Miller said. “Then, getting these guys rehabbed and back to the bigs so they could make a contribution really made me feel like I helped us win the World Series. That was a pretty amazing experience.”

At the end of 2024, Miller decided his “childhood dream was complete.” He missed the Gunnison Country and decided to step away from the Dodgers organization and move back home. Now, he runs his own remote training business for professional athletes in the MLB, NFL and NBA — all while fulfilling his dream of re-opening Colorado Fitness. 

“I’m most excited for the open gym atmosphere — to be able to walk around, talk to people and create connections and relationships,” Miller said. “I’m really looking forward to being a central hub of social connection and a bright light in the community.”

Miller expects the renovations to be complete next month, with the hard launch set for Dec. 1. 

(Alex McCrindle can be contacted at 970.641.1414 or amccrindle@orourkemediagroup.com.)