Mikki Padilla: Eye on the goal

Former Santa Fe standout athlete embraces life in Southern California but never forgets her roots

Sean Brander | For The New Mexican

11/15/2008 - 11/16/08

Born May 27, 1974, on a camping trip in the Conejos Mountains in Colorado, Mikki Padilla's life got off to the right kind of start. She was several weeks early, as if she had jumped the line before the pistol's crack. And one of Santa Fe's former star athletes is still sprinting.

Padilla, who moved from Santa Fe to Los Angeles in 2000 to pursue an acting career, is the co-host of Game Show Network's Catch 21, a blackjack and trivia hybrid where contestants vie for a $25,000 prize. After weeks of spending 10- to 12-hour days on the set shooting the first season of Catch 21, GSN renewed the show with the hope that it might be snapped up by network television.

All the while, Padilla is doing what she normally does: Everything at once. Aside from trying to pitch her screenplay, sell her Michael Jordan-inspired ad campaign to Nike, publish her self-help book and polish off a few poems, she's soaking up the sunny L.A. scene.

"There are amazing people in L.A.," Padilla said. "The stereotypes about it (being shallow) don't bother me. If people would come out here they would see for themselves that there are all kinds of people here, from those who make a hundred million a year to those who are dirt poor. As long as you don't get caught up in and remember where you came from, you'll be all right.

"I do miss Santa Fe," she reflected. "I'll always be in Santa Fe. I really miss the rain. I miss the snow. And Santa Fe definitely has better food."

When Padilla was 4, her parents, Ernie and Evie Padilla, moved to Santa Fe. By the time Padilla was in sixth grade, her parents divorced, but remained close friends. Her stepfather, Cristobal Chavez, also became friends with her father.

Every day after school, Padilla's father would be waiting to play basketball with her. When she attended Kearny Elementary, she was the only girl on the team. Her sixth-grade year, they won the state championship. A picture of the team shows her in the back, smiling out from under unruly hair, the boys mostly somber or shy.

She played baseball too, and played it well enough to become the only girl in Santa Fe's Babe Ruth Prep league, where she pitched and played first base.

"The boys would be so embarrassed — imagine being struck out by a girl! I worked hard, and I made the boys work harder," she said. She also ran track. And played volleyball. DeVargas Middle school named her Athlete of the Year.

Attending Santa Fe High in the early '90s, she was a Denver Broncos fan who gambled her friends' homework on their games. Every time the Broncos lost, she wrote someone's paper. "I wrote a lot of papers," she said.

If she hadn't gone into acting, Padilla said, her next choice would've been a sportscaster for ESPN. She attended both New Mexico State University and The University of New Mexico, and said she sometimes has trouble choosing who to cheer for and still follows both schools closely.

Midway through her time at NMSU, she flew to New York to become a model for Avon. When she returned to New Mexico, she planned to become a doctor and was a few credits away from graduating with a degree in biochemistry from UNM, but switched at the last moment to sociology. "I love being with people. I didn't want to be in lab all day," she said.

In meantime, her friends were maturing — getting married and starting families. Padilla wanted more, but understood why the people around her were settling down. "Santa Fe is a warm, comfortable community. It's hard to leave," Padilla said. "I miss family life.

"When I left (for Los Angeles), people were saying I wouldn't last eight months," Padilla said. "I'm not clueless, but I had big plans to bring my family out here. It doesn't come easy, learning the ropes. But when I was on the set of Catch 21, everything just clicked. I love it — I can be anything I want to be."

While Padilla waits to begin filming the second season on Catch 21, she's pouring herself into her writing. "First and foremost," Padilla said, "I am a writer. My end goal is to inspire. I want people to say 'Wow, she never gave up, she kept going for what she wanted no matter what.' "

Catch 21, starring Mikki Padilla and Alfonso Ribeiro, airs on the Game Show Network at 5:30 p.m. MST, Monday through Friday; 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; and at 8 and 8:30 p.m. Sunday.