On Tuesday, April 29, 2025, the Georgia Southern University Clay Target Team officially entered into a new era as university officials, members of the community, student athletes, and athletic staff members listened to head coach Marty Fischer's announcement of the team's transition into Division I competition.
This major announcement, made at the Shooting Sports Education Center, came directly off the cusp of the team signing their first-ever official scholarship athlete Connor Daniel.
Daniel is the No. 1 ranked junior FITASC Sporting Clay shooter in the world and has traveled all around the globe collecting a laundry list of championship titles at only 17 years old.
The Georgia Southern University Clay Target Team has continuously played on a top-tier level since the arrival of head coach Marty Fischer, leading the program to four consecutive National Championship titles in American Skeet.
All of the National Championship titles, trophies, and banners currtently in the front entrance of the University's Shooting Sports Education Center fall under Division II and Division III ACUI tournaments. Since the NCAA decided to sanction rifles and not shotguns 50+ years ago, ACUI took the shotgun sports and has held the Collegiate Clay Target Championship for more than five decades.
These divisions under ACUI are totally based on the number of collegiate participants within the competition.
The Eagles clay target team has dominated throughout the years in this ACUI division with only around 17 shooters, but they have their mind set on taking larger teams with 40 plus athletes and competing in a tournament in the highest division, betting highly on the talent the program has developed.
“We have, you know, 16 or 17 shooters. But I will tell you something, these young folks can play, and they're serious about it, and because we're serious about it, and because we want to be the best, the team has made a determination that from this point forward, even though we don't have the prerequisite number to be called Division One, we're classing up to division one," Coach Fischer said. "We already shoot with those people. We've already beaten them. We've beaten every one of those teams that's up there.”
Coach Fischer would preach to everyone in attendance that it doesn't matter how many you've got on the team; what matters is the quality of what you've got, and he believes that they have a tremendous amount of quality talent on their roster to continue the team's winning ways.
The team's addition of Connor Daniel elevates the excitement around the program as they look to usher a new era of continued winning culture in Division I competition with the goal of adding new division titles to their name.
For more information on the Shooting Sportrs Education Center, visit georgiasouthern.edu/recreation/ssec/.