Connor Daniel: The making of a Champion

[00:00:00] You're listening to Shotgun Sports USA, powered by Winchester Ammunition, the American legend. Listen to the best shotgun shooters from all over the country in every discipline. Championship winning coaches, gun clubs, target setters, vendors, as well as companies that fuel the sport.

[00:00:22] Shotgun Sports USA is brought to you by Alamo Sporting Arms, ESP, Electronic Shooters Protection, White Flyer, Briley, Rick Hemingway's Permatic Trap Sales, Clay Target Vision, and Castellani USA.

[00:00:39] Thanks for listening, and remember to visit us online at ShotgunSportsUSA.com, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram.

[00:00:50] All right, welcome to Shotgun Sports USA, another episode after Nationals. I've got something a little different today. I've got Connor Daniel and Tom C.

[00:00:58] Tom's going to help me do some interviews with some people and get a different perspective on the sport.

[00:01:06] You know, you hear podcasts asking the same thing over and over again. I'm tired of hearing it. I'm sure you're tired of hearing it.

[00:01:12] And we're going to try something a little different, have some pros on here interviewing some people and getting a different experience.

[00:01:19] So that's what we're doing. Tom and I will talk to Connor, and we're going to see where he's going, what he's doing, and what his plans are, and what he thought about Nationals and everything in between.

[00:01:28] I'm excited. We've done a few episodes in the past, not really following through with as many as we wanted, but that's going to change hopefully.

[00:01:35] I enjoy interviewing and talking and thinking about the questions and asking because a lot of times I have some questions.

[00:01:43] I like hearing what other people think, and I'm really excited to talk to Connor because I think we have some things in common about, you know, he's a junior shooter growing up with a lot of support.

[00:01:57] His parents support him. And, you know, I know Connor's out of Savannah and family's, you know, his Daniel defense and obviously big into the shooting sports.

[00:02:09] And so, you know, Connor, I really just want you to introduce yourself a little bit because, I mean, you have been a pretty dominant junior shooter, done really well.

[00:02:17] I know you've had a lot of coaching from Zach, and I've seen you at all the major tournaments in the last three or four years.

[00:02:23] I mean, you've been somebody that beat a lot of people. You know, you've been somebody that's been tough for me to beat.

[00:02:29] Me too.

[00:02:33] Well, first of all, thank you all for having me on. I'm really looking forward to talking to you all.

[00:02:37] As many of you all know me, I'm Connor, and I've been shooting the last five years, really three or four years competitively in the NSEA scene.

[00:02:45] And I started shooting about COVID time. I had an injury and I had to quit all the sports for the school.

[00:02:53] And that was about the same time we started our school shooting team.

[00:02:57] So I started shooting. I dabbled around with a couple of the coaches at Four City.

[00:03:03] And then that all led me to coaching with Zach. And Zach was the main reason that I'm shooting what I am now.

[00:03:09] He kind of got me off the ground and got me at all these big shoots.

[00:03:12] And I do a lot of what I've accomplished to him.

[00:03:15] It's a lot too. Like this whole past year, man, I don't, and it's not even this year.

[00:03:20] It's even the years prior.

[00:03:22] I mean, I don't, you know, you've only been shooting a few years.

[00:03:24] I mean, I remember shooting with you at Four City when you were, I mean, up to about my waist.

[00:03:28] Yeah, that was a while ago. I remember that.

[00:03:32] And now it's just like, I don't even look at you as a junior shooter.

[00:03:36] And Tom may think differently. I look at you as like, this guy's, this guy can win this tournament.

[00:03:40] I mean, I don't even think that he's a junior. You know what I mean?

[00:03:44] Yeah, it's crazy. It's only my first year in junior. Actually, I've been in sub junior the last three years.

[00:03:48] And this was my first full year in junior. You know, Zach, Zach, I've always, you know, Zach and I have always been friends ever since I very first started shooting.

[00:03:57] I mean, it can't get any better than Zach. He's kind of, it's like, he's like the godfather of sporting clays.

[00:04:03] I mean, he's been around since the beginning, but you know what, what, what's it? I mean, Zach has a lot of success with young people.

[00:04:10] I mean, like Dominic, uh, Grossi and then, and yourself. And I'm sure I'm leaving some people out, but I mean, like, what's it like taking lessons with Zach and talking to Zach?

[00:04:20] Cause I mean, he's really involved. I mean, it seems like he's really involved almost like as a personal friend, like not just a coach, you know?

[00:04:26] Yeah. Yeah. Of course. Um, I really wasn't familiar with NSCA stuff.

[00:04:32] I, when I started taking lessons from Zach to be honest with you, I had no idea how good of a shot he was.

[00:04:37] I didn't know anything about his, he had just won the two national championships in a row.

[00:04:42] I had no idea about that, but, um, yeah, we, we started shooting together.

[00:04:47] We shot a lot together in the first couple of years, I think almost three days a week, every single week, he kind of just took me under his wing and I squad with him at all the major tournaments.

[00:04:58] And yeah, we just kind of built a friendship and we've always been good friends since, and he's been a great mentor in my shooting career.

[00:05:05] You know, that's, that's, uh, I didn't really do the math and think about it, but I mean, you've only really been shooting for like four years, you know?

[00:05:14] Yeah.

[00:05:15] And, and, uh, you know, obviously I was coached by Wendell and when I would go see Wendell, you know, once every couple months and shoot and have a lesson and come back and practice it.

[00:05:25] And, and, uh, you know, it, I mean, obviously I started so young, like eight years old taking lessons from Wendell, but it took me, you know, several years.

[00:05:35] Um, that, that's, uh, that's kind of unique to be able to shoot with your coach that much.

[00:05:41] And obviously it led to very quick learning.

[00:05:46] I mean, to get to basically not know anything about the NSCA and go to any tournaments in within four years, um, you know, you're, uh, you, you, I mean, you're contender to win.

[00:05:57] You know, you're one of the top guys.

[00:05:58] I mean, regardless of age, that is a contender to win.

[00:06:02] Um, that's pretty impressive.

[00:06:04] I don't know that many people have done it that fast.

[00:06:06] Yeah.

[00:06:07] I think I like to think of it as it's like, it's like a new, a new basketball player playing basketball with Michael Jordan every single day for a couple of years.

[00:06:16] You're, you're, you're bound to get better.

[00:06:18] I mean, it's going to push you to get better.

[00:06:20] And I mean, if you surround yourself with people that, that are better than you and know a lot more about you, you're going to continue to learn more stuff and get better.

[00:06:30] So Tom just said that he would shoot with Wendell for, you know, once a month, maybe, maybe twice a month.

[00:06:35] How often, or that's a lesson.

[00:06:37] How often would you take a lesson?

[00:06:38] Was that, um, the first couple of years, like I said, it was, it was three or four days a week, almost.

[00:06:43] I mean, I would shoot as much as I possibly could until my parents still be no more.

[00:06:47] They're, they're worried for me getting burnt out, but I had like a little fire inside me.

[00:06:51] I wanted to get as much practicing as possible.

[00:06:54] I was, I was hungry to shoot nowadays.

[00:06:56] We don't, we, we don't do many lessons anymore, but it's mainly just shooting together and squatting together.

[00:07:01] I still learned just as much from that than I did from taking lessons from him.

[00:07:05] Yeah.

[00:07:05] You know, what I was, what I was going to say is there's been so many younger shooters come up and, uh, you know, compete and contend for winning tournaments.

[00:07:15] And, and I, I think, I think it's directly tied and connected to, you know, the fact that there is such good coaching out there and there is the ability to, you know, to get good coaching.

[00:07:29] But also, you know, something I've spoken about in the past on some of these podcasts is what you just mentioned.

[00:07:36] You have to have a fire and a passion.

[00:07:38] You really have to want to do it and you have to want to be good and want to shoot with Zach and, and not, you have to want that more than going with your friends or going and playing basketball or whatever there may be in high school.

[00:07:51] And, um, you know, that's, uh, that's something that not everybody has.

[00:07:56] I know a lot of people that are really talented, but they just don't have that drive and that fire.

[00:08:01] That's right.

[00:08:02] Yeah.

[00:08:03] That's, that's what it takes though.

[00:08:04] I mean, you look at pretty much anybody at the top and I mean, if you're going to win, you got to want it more than everybody else.

[00:08:10] I think, I think a big reason for all the, uh, all the success for the younger people like myself is there's, there's more and more youth shooters now.

[00:08:19] I mean, the youth shooting programs in the country is it's insane how many people there are.

[00:08:23] I mean, as to be nationals, there's thousands of kids.

[00:08:26] So I think the more and more kids that continue to shoot, the more, um, good youth shooters like myself, like Todd, Joe Turner, they're all going to start coming onto the NSEA scene and giving all the professional shooters run for the money.

[00:08:40] Yeah.

[00:08:40] I mean, as something I never did as a, as a junior or coming up through high school and, and, you know, I don't know, maybe, I don't know that it was as prevalent or as popular, but also Tennessee is not a, is not a, as big of a shooting state as Georgia or Texas or Florida, any of those places.

[00:09:02] But I never thought about it as much that way, as much as having a lot of coaching, a lot of available coaching, but.

[00:09:10] Right.

[00:09:11] Yeah.

[00:09:11] I think, I think the coaching is a big part of it too.

[00:09:14] I mean, most of the top shooters are trying to make a living out of the game.

[00:09:18] And the only way to really do that is to coach.

[00:09:21] And that's, that's kind of how more of that coaching has come along.

[00:09:25] All the young shooters are taking lessons from professional shooters.

[00:09:28] And that's just, that's just putting them ahead of everybody else.

[00:09:31] I think that's how people really get good.

[00:09:33] Yeah.

[00:09:33] I mean, when you go to tournaments, no matter where you go to and you're competing against

[00:09:36] people, I mean, I, I know we were talking prior to this podcast and you just won, won a big tournament in, you know, the state high school tournament.

[00:09:48] Is that right?

[00:09:49] Mm-hmm.

[00:09:49] And I mean, you shot a, uh, I think you said a, uh, two 95 out of 300 and, and how much did

[00:09:57] you end up winning by?

[00:09:58] I think it was only by four, but, um, I shot, I think I won the sporting clays by six or seven,

[00:10:03] which was, that's my game.

[00:10:06] And I'm more experienced than pretty much anybody in that shoot.

[00:10:09] So that's kind of where I got ahead there.

[00:10:12] Um, I shot, I didn't shoot so well in the last day of trap, but heat and trap aren't, aren't

[00:10:17] necessarily my specialty.

[00:10:18] So he missed five targets.

[00:10:20] He said he didn't shoot.

[00:10:21] Well, I'm just, I'm just, I'm, I'm reminding everybody.

[00:10:24] He missed five targets out of 300.

[00:10:26] If you listen to the details, he missed them all in trap just about.

[00:10:29] So yeah, I missed four of them in trap and I shot, I shot a hundred and skeet and 99 in

[00:10:34] sporting.

[00:10:34] So it kind of, kind of stings a little bit knowing you could have shot two 99, two 98, but I mean,

[00:10:40] two 95 is a good score regardless.

[00:10:42] So you probably need to get with Zach on some trap targets.

[00:10:46] I don't know about Zach.

[00:10:47] I might, I might need to find somebody else in Zach.

[00:10:49] I don't know.

[00:10:50] Zach's not that good of a trap shooter.

[00:10:54] Oh yeah.

[00:10:55] When you're down there, I mean, are there a lot of kids coming up to you?

[00:10:59] Like that's Connor Daniel.

[00:11:00] I mean, how is that when you're at a shoot like that?

[00:11:03] No, I mean, not really.

[00:11:04] I think a part of it is I've, I've been shooting that for five years and kind of everybody already

[00:11:09] knows me and I've had a relationship with most of the people there.

[00:11:12] And also most of the kids, they don't even, they don't really follow up, follow up.

[00:11:16] Any of the NSEA stuff is.

[00:11:19] And I mean, if you, you asked most of those kids who I am or who some of the other good

[00:11:22] shooters that come from that program are, they, they would have no idea.

[00:11:25] See, I think I would think they'd keep up with it.

[00:11:28] No.

[00:11:29] Wow.

[00:11:30] Why do you think that is?

[00:11:31] Why don't, why would they not know?

[00:11:34] Why could, why would they not make the connection?

[00:11:36] Do you think just not?

[00:11:37] I think, I think it's just that the kids don't shoot as much NSEA as you think.

[00:11:42] They're kind of centralized around the high school, the SETP.

[00:11:47] And I mean, most of the kids around, around us just shoot SETP in high school and they don't

[00:11:51] really do any NSEA stuff and keep up with it.

[00:11:54] I mean, there's sure, sure there's a select few that, that keep up with everything that's

[00:11:59] going on.

[00:11:59] But I mean, most of the kids don't even have an opportunity to go to most of these shoots.

[00:12:03] And I mean, if they're not going, they're not going to be able to kind of follow what's

[00:12:08] happening.

[00:12:08] They have no idea what's going on.

[00:12:10] I wouldn't have thought that, but yeah, I guess that makes, that makes sense.

[00:12:13] I mean, it's, I guess there's always been thousands of kids at SETP nationals, but they

[00:12:19] don't, those people don't end up, most, the vast majority of them don't end up going to

[00:12:23] regionals or US Opens or anything.

[00:12:25] Pretty much none at all.

[00:12:26] I mean, you can look at some of the top shooters at SETP nationals and look at the entrance at

[00:12:33] some of the regionals and rarely any of them are there.

[00:12:36] Why is that?

[00:12:37] Why do you think they don't go, they just don't know about it?

[00:12:40] I don't know if it's that they don't know about it or they don't want to, but I think

[00:12:44] they like the team aspect of it.

[00:12:46] They kind of, I don't think most of them have the time or say the money to go to all the

[00:12:52] shoots and do SETP and NSEA.

[00:12:55] I think that's a big part.

[00:12:56] I mean, I, I obviously didn't have the time.

[00:12:58] I shot in this.

[00:12:59] I shot SETP for a couple of years.

[00:13:01] I stopped shooting SETP to kind of shoot an SGA more.

[00:13:05] That was when I was getting big into shooting all the, all the tour events.

[00:13:08] And I still shoot for, I just finished my last high school season, but I still shot that,

[00:13:14] but that didn't take up much of the year.

[00:13:16] I mean, the NSEA shoots, those are, those keep you busy.

[00:13:20] I mean, you have a shoot pretty much every other week, it feels like.

[00:13:23] And that's a lot of practice and a lot of preparing for the big tournaments.

[00:13:26] It's pretty obvious the, the sports trying to kind of branch out and do different things.

[00:13:31] Like look at the pro squad.

[00:13:33] And, and, uh, I think that's, there's, there's some type of evolution of that.

[00:13:37] That's gonna, it's gonna progress on into the next shooting season where I think the squads

[00:13:42] are going to be, you know, the pro squad is going to be at all the regionals and not just

[00:13:46] the nationals, but, you know, you, to me, it seems like that's an attempt to try to,

[00:13:53] uh, you know, give the sport most more exposure, but it seems like from, I mean, from talking

[00:14:00] about this, there, there's a lot of, there's a lot of people that shoot this sport, but

[00:14:05] they don't, the transition from SCTP or high school to the NSCA.

[00:14:14] Um, I mean, if they want to compete or the sport, they want people to grow.

[00:14:19] If the sport needs to grow past kids shooting in high school, it seems like there needs to

[00:14:24] be some, that needs to be a focus and get keeping these younger kids in the sport.

[00:14:29] And obviously it's an expensive sport and, you know, it's, it's, uh, it's gotten more

[00:14:34] expensive over the last years, but, uh, it seems like there's a, there's a lot more people

[00:14:39] than even I realized that, um, you know, participates in sporting clays and in this sport, if they

[00:14:46] could just continue on to the organization that they can compete for a lifetime, you know,

[00:14:54] that there is no age limit.

[00:14:55] Yeah.

[00:14:56] It's important to keep the youth active in the NSCA because that's eventually what, what the

[00:15:01] NSCA will be.

[00:15:02] You know, I mean, that's, that's what comes up.

[00:15:05] I mean, every, you know, the older folks quit and the younger folks come up and they're shooting.

[00:15:09] So that's a, that's a big thing that I didn't know that high school, you know, the school

[00:15:14] shooting like that didn't, uh, a lot of them didn't know about the NSCA really or keep up

[00:15:22] with it.

[00:15:22] I didn't know that.

[00:15:23] Yeah.

[00:15:23] It's, it's definitely different, but, um, another thing too, is most of the, uh, high

[00:15:28] school students and the STP kids, they, they rarely shoot after high school or college.

[00:15:34] They sure they, some of them know about ACA, but I mean, they go on to go to college, get

[00:15:39] jobs and none of them really stick with shooting.

[00:15:41] I think that's a big part of why a lot of people aren't staying in the sport.

[00:15:46] That's, that's kind of a thing that needs to be fixed and we need to keep as many people

[00:15:49] as we can in the sport.

[00:15:50] I think a lot of people, you know, I'm a pretty competitive person.

[00:15:54] Obviously you are Connor.

[00:15:55] And, and I think to shoot this sport and, and especially the people at the top, they're,

[00:16:01] they're really competitive.

[00:16:02] They don't just do it for the fun of it.

[00:16:03] You know, they do it for the fun of competing and winning, not just because they, not solely

[00:16:08] because they enjoy shooting a shotgun, but you know, I think that, uh, that's a, that's

[00:16:14] a big part in probably high school kids.

[00:16:17] Cause I mean, I can think back and no, I, I'm not as many as you're talking about, but

[00:16:21] a few people that shot, but they weren't very serious about it.

[00:16:25] And they did grow up and go to school and they valued, you know, going, going and, and

[00:16:30] being with their friends.

[00:16:32] And, and it's kind of what you were saying earlier is it's it, you have to have that fire.

[00:16:38] Yeah.

[00:16:38] I think what comes to being good and being successful is you have to sacrifice stuff like

[00:16:43] that.

[00:16:44] And you have to, you have to be able to give, give your all to what you're trying to be

[00:16:50] good at in order to be your best.

[00:16:52] It, it, it's not a, it's not a casual pursuit, but you know, speaking of, you know, you shooting

[00:17:00] well and, and, um, being competitive and putting, putting a lot into it, you know, you, you shot

[00:17:07] talk about nationals for a second.

[00:17:09] You know, you shot really well at nationals and you were a squad or two ahead or behind

[00:17:14] me.

[00:17:16] And, um, you know, I think the pro squad, I really, I really enjoyed it.

[00:17:22] You know, this was my first year on it.

[00:17:24] Um, I, for, for, you know, whatever reasons, my own, whatever I, this was the first year

[00:17:30] I had been on it cause I didn't meet some of the qualifications that they had, um, you

[00:17:36] know, that they had set out to, to be on the pro squad, but you know, you, you were on

[00:17:41] the pro squad and shot really well.

[00:17:44] Um, I mean, you going into the last day, you were, uh, I mean, you were in like, I don't

[00:17:50] know what third place.

[00:17:51] I mean, you were way ahead of me and, um, you know, you didn't get you.

[00:17:58] You, I don't know.

[00:17:59] I don't know if you had qualified or pretty much, pretty much what happened is I wasn't

[00:18:05] actually on the super squad.

[00:18:06] I was one of the bid ends.

[00:18:07] So I was, or the pro squad and I was shooting with the pro squad and, um, going into the

[00:18:13] last day I was sitting third overall, but instead of, instead of them putting me on the,

[00:18:18] uh, top squad with the, the other three best shooters, um, they put me on the, um, I think

[00:18:27] put in the bid spots at, so I didn't, I didn't get to shoot with the top squad.

[00:18:32] And I think there's, there's good things and bad things about that.

[00:18:36] I think, I think it was definitely better for my nerves and my, um, I think I would

[00:18:42] have shot a little worse if I shot on the top squad because pressure was a big part of

[00:18:46] it.

[00:18:46] I think it would also been good for me to shoot on the top squad because it was, it would

[00:18:50] have been a good experience for me when, I mean, we're doing all of these, we're doing

[00:18:54] the pro squad at all the regionals next year.

[00:18:56] I'm going to, I'm going to be in that situation again.

[00:18:59] And the more and more I could put myself in that situation, the better I'm going to get

[00:19:02] at it.

[00:19:03] Yeah.

[00:19:03] You know, there was actually people that weren't on the pro squad that was up at the top in

[00:19:07] the top 10, I think before the last day started.

[00:19:09] Yeah.

[00:19:10] I think, um, uh, yeah, Cameron Hicks was up there and there's a couple other guys.

[00:19:14] I know I started, I started the last day in third overall and I finished six.

[00:19:19] Anthony was the only person on the pro squad to jump me.

[00:19:22] There was two other people that weren't on the pro squad that were shooting different courses

[00:19:26] that, um, that got ahead of me the last day.

[00:19:29] So I think there's, I think the main reason for that were the targets, the targets allowed

[00:19:33] a lot of big scores to be shot and nothing against the targets.

[00:19:37] I think targets are great, but there's, there's a couple other shooters that, that got really

[00:19:41] high up in the, uh, up in the ranks that weren't on the pro squad.

[00:19:45] I don't really know how to, I will have talked to several people about this.

[00:19:49] I don't know how I feel about that being, um, not letting him shoot with the top squad.

[00:19:56] If he's earned it and he's shooting in the pro squad.

[00:19:59] I don't, I mean, do you agree with that Connor?

[00:20:02] I don't know if you do or not.

[00:20:03] Um, I don't necessarily agree with it, but, um, that's, that's kind of what happened.

[00:20:08] I think it would have been better for me to shoot on the top squad.

[00:20:11] And I feel like that's kind of what I deserved, but what happened happened and it's, it's

[00:20:15] no big deal.

[00:20:16] And I mean, it's nothing to sweat about at the end of the day.

[00:20:20] Yeah.

[00:20:20] I mean, I think, I think, uh, you know, no matter what somebody does to try to, you know,

[00:20:26] whatever idea they have, whatever they're doing, you know, I think it's great.

[00:20:30] I really enjoy, I really appreciate the effort that they've put in to, you know, to this

[00:20:37] version of trying to progress the sport and make, make the final day more

[00:20:40] entertaining.

[00:20:41] Um, I think that, you know, everybody is going to have their criticism at the end of

[00:20:46] the day.

[00:20:46] I think everybody is appreciative of the effort that the NCAA is putting it, putting

[00:20:50] in to do this.

[00:20:52] But I, you know, in hindsight, I'm sure everybody, including, you know, the creators

[00:20:57] of this have things that they would do better.

[00:20:59] So none of this is said out of any criticism or, or, or anything like that.

[00:21:04] But, you know, I have my thoughts on maybe the qualification process could be, could be

[00:21:11] a little better.

[00:21:11] I mean, or it could be a little different.

[00:21:13] Um, what do you think about, about how the qualifications are and how, you know, is there

[00:21:19] something that you saw that, that you think would change and make it better?

[00:21:23] Connor?

[00:21:23] Yeah.

[00:21:24] Yeah.

[00:21:24] I mean, I was, I was looking at the, uh, the criteria before I came on here.

[00:21:29] And I mean, obviously I think people like me or you should, should be on it.

[00:21:33] You didn't make it until recently.

[00:21:34] And I wasn't on it this year and I'll, I'll be on the next year.

[00:21:37] Looking at the criteria, it was, it was very heavy on, um, finishing well at the nationals

[00:21:43] and making the all American teams.

[00:21:45] I don't, I don't know how I, uh, I don't know a way to kind of get more people like me

[00:21:50] and you in it.

[00:21:51] I feel like it's much harder to make it at any other shoot, but the nationals.

[00:21:55] I feel like if you don't have a good performance at the nationals, then it's pretty much impossible

[00:21:59] to make it.

[00:22:01] I think you have to place top three at a regional or maybe top five at the U S open to make it,

[00:22:07] but it's top 15 at the nationals.

[00:22:09] So I think that's the easiest way to make it.

[00:22:11] Is it a top 15, including ties?

[00:22:13] Um, I believe so.

[00:22:15] Yeah.

[00:22:15] And what was interesting about it, I went back and looked at the last, last shoots last year.

[00:22:20] I placed sixth overall in the last two regionals.

[00:22:24] And I think you gotta be fifth for the regionals.

[00:22:27] And I placed 16th overall at nationals, which you gotta be 15th.

[00:22:31] So I missed it by one spot at the last three shoots last year.

[00:22:35] And I mean, I feel like I was so close, even though I didn't hit the qualifications, I feel

[00:22:41] like I should still be in it.

[00:22:43] I mean, that's what the criteria is there for.

[00:22:45] It's to, it's to kind of get everybody that has a chance of winning on the pro squad.

[00:22:49] And I think it does a fairly good job of that.

[00:22:52] And I don't know the solution to making it perfect.

[00:22:55] I don't think it's ever going to be perfect.

[00:22:56] I mean, I agree with what he said, Tom, you know, he's, he was, you know, there was a

[00:23:02] couple, I think Jasper Copeland was a buy-in also, and he was, he was up towards the top.

[00:23:07] I think if, you know, Connor, was your score even included in the pro squad?

[00:23:12] I was not in the pro class.

[00:23:14] No, I was, I was still in master class.

[00:23:16] See, and that, that made it confusing for a lot of people watching or looking.

[00:23:19] I mean, if you go down and look, I mean, you have, if you're looking on score chaser,

[00:23:23] you have the top three shooters and then it goes straight to pro class.

[00:23:25] But what was interesting, if you went down to master class, the top three or four shooters

[00:23:31] in master class were higher than pro class first place.

[00:23:36] And I think so like past third place overall, there's three or four shooters that were in

[00:23:40] master class in the top 10.

[00:23:42] The scoring resolution is easy.

[00:23:44] I think that you have a pro class score and you have a master class score.

[00:23:48] And then at the end of the day or however you work it up, you have a whole nother, uh, I

[00:23:54] guess, tally of the real order of nationals.

[00:23:58] You know what I mean?

[00:23:59] Mm-hmm.

[00:24:00] Yeah.

[00:24:00] So, I mean, I mean, scoring is easy to fix.

[00:24:03] I mean, I think if you shoot the score, regardless of whether you're on it, but whether you're, you're

[00:24:08] qualified or, or have met the criteria, I think if you shoot the score, you should be considered,

[00:24:15] you should be squatted the same as if someone happened to be in the pro squad.

[00:24:20] I mean, that's, that's my opinion.

[00:24:22] Yeah.

[00:24:23] I mean, at that point, it really doesn't matter if you fit the criteria or not you're, you're

[00:24:27] shooting up there with the people that have.

[00:24:29] And I think you, you have a pretty much an equal chance of winning as everybody else.

[00:24:33] It's not just cause you haven't hit their criteria.

[00:24:36] It doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to partake in like what everybody else has a chance in

[00:24:41] doing.

[00:24:41] And just because they've, they've hit a certain requirement and you haven't.

[00:24:45] Yeah.

[00:24:46] I mean it for, for me, I think it would have, it would have, uh, if I had been in your

[00:24:51] shoots that had been tough because, you know, I would have wanted to, not that I would have,

[00:24:57] not that I would have been keeping score, but, but, uh, you know, when you, when you're

[00:25:04] shooting with, you know, Brandon or Derek or Anthony or Gibbon or those guys, and you're

[00:25:10] right there with them, it does a lot for you to be able to, you know, see how they shoot the

[00:25:16] birds, see which birds they struggle with.

[00:25:18] If, you know, if they miss one, I mean, I know I started on stand one with that, that

[00:25:23] tower from, from the left.

[00:25:24] And I'll just give a good example.

[00:25:26] Zach stepped up there right in front of me and shot a five out of six.

[00:25:30] And I had not seen anybody hit more than a two.

[00:25:32] That was impressive.

[00:25:34] Yeah.

[00:25:35] He did that right in front of me.

[00:25:37] And I, I, I had not seen anybody shoot more than a two there.

[00:25:40] And I stepped in and I'm not going to lie.

[00:25:42] It kind of shook me for a second.

[00:25:43] Cause I was like, wow, how do you, how do you follow that?

[00:25:47] And then I missed the first pair.

[00:25:48] And me as well.

[00:25:50] I got in there.

[00:25:51] It was my, I think second or third to last station.

[00:25:54] I was on a good, I was on a good number and I watched everybody in front of me struggle

[00:25:58] on it.

[00:25:58] I had heard, I had heard people on the top squad said zero or one or two, the station.

[00:26:04] And I got there and I missed the first pair and be honest with you.

[00:26:08] It felt perfect.

[00:26:08] I mean, it was a, it was a pretty deceptive pair.

[00:26:10] I had no idea what I did.

[00:26:12] And then I, I, I thought I had to be behind the birds because I mean, there's no way you

[00:26:17] can really get in front of that.

[00:26:19] So, um, I, I kind of just stretched both my leads and I, I missed another one of my second

[00:26:24] pair.

[00:26:24] And I, I finally kind of just let the last pair rip and I, I just trusted it and I hit it.

[00:26:30] I hit the pair.

[00:26:31] I came out with three and I think that was honestly might've been above average for most of the

[00:26:36] shooters.

[00:26:36] Somebody explain the pair of people listening that weren't there.

[00:26:39] It was, it was, uh, it was, so it was right there on the very front of the green course

[00:26:44] where there's a tree line to your left and behind the tree line, they had a tower at about

[00:26:48] 50, 55 yards out.

[00:26:50] And there was a true pair of edgy birds coming off the tower, pretty much full spring.

[00:26:55] And, um, one was a middie and one was a standard.

[00:26:58] You had to get on them pretty fast and it was, it was hard to do so because they, they

[00:27:02] took so much lead.

[00:27:03] It was, uh, it was, I don't know why it was, but it was a, it was a very deceptive

[00:27:08] pair and it fooled a lot of people.

[00:27:10] How do you approach that, that pair?

[00:27:13] Cause y'all shoot differently.

[00:27:15] Like Tom, when you got up there, how did you approach it?

[00:27:17] But what did you, how did you do it?

[00:27:20] You know, I, it was, it was a really tough pair because mainly for me, because I couldn't

[00:27:27] see the machines and it was a fast set of targets and it made you, it made you be perfect on your

[00:27:37] hold point.

[00:27:38] And if you were not perfect on your hold point, not only with your gun, but with your eyes,

[00:27:43] you were behind from the very beginning.

[00:27:45] And so, uh, the way the sun was positioned at the time of day, that made it, that made it

[00:27:52] even more deceptive because you had a, um, you had a pair of targets that you were amped

[00:27:59] up and anxious as soon as you called pull to see them.

[00:28:02] And, you know, I shoot everything or I try to shoot most things with maintain lead.

[00:28:07] And, um, you know, it was, and your whole points are not perfect on that shooting that

[00:28:14] way.

[00:28:14] It's kind of, it's kind of hard to cover from that.

[00:28:17] Yeah, it is.

[00:28:18] And, and, you know, I shot, I shot my first two pairs.

[00:28:21] I missed my first two pairs and I just misread it, shot behind them and, and kind of figured

[00:28:27] it out.

[00:28:27] And I was kind of like you, there's no way you can be, but you can be in front of that

[00:28:31] pair.

[00:28:31] And I, so I had to have been behind it and I hit the last pair.

[00:28:34] So, I mean, you know, stepping up there and following a five, I mean, that was amazing,

[00:28:39] but I think you just have to be so good with your whole points, especially if you're going

[00:28:43] to shoot the style that, that I shoot.

[00:28:46] And that's, uh, that's, um, you know, both of them going away, you're losing time.

[00:28:52] You know, it's just a very, you're anxious from the very start.

[00:28:56] Right.

[00:28:56] Right.

[00:28:57] How do you shoot it?

[00:28:58] Can you shoot it about the same way?

[00:28:59] Um, yeah, I think I was, I probably shot it about the same way Tom did.

[00:29:04] I, I kind of just wanted to have a good hold point and start at the lead and kind of just

[00:29:09] match the speed of the birds and shoot them as fast as I possibly could while still making

[00:29:15] a good shot at both the birds.

[00:29:17] Cause they were getting away pretty fast.

[00:29:18] I think my mindset going into that station was I was only down two or three birds at the

[00:29:23] time.

[00:29:23] And I, I think I was telling myself that, um, you can't be really, you can't be careful

[00:29:29] on that pair.

[00:29:30] You have to shoot that pair to hit the birds and not, and not, not in a miss.

[00:29:34] So I got in there and I'm like, I'm gonna get as many as I can get.

[00:29:37] And I'm going to only focus on the next pair and hit as many as I get.

[00:29:41] And I got in there and, um, I let it fool me and feel like I got, I got out with three

[00:29:46] out of six.

[00:29:46] I feel like that kept me in.

[00:29:48] And then I feel like that was a decent score on that station.

[00:29:51] So, yeah, that was, that was not a bad score.

[00:29:54] I'm gonna put it that way.

[00:29:55] I mean, that's, uh, that was a hard stand to start on.

[00:29:58] That's a hard stand to finish out on trying to close out a bigger score.

[00:30:02] But that's, that kind of brings me a question that, you know, you just said you can't, you

[00:30:08] can't shoot that tight or, you know, you can't shoot it not to miss.

[00:30:13] And that's something that everybody struggles with.

[00:30:16] If you care about shoot your score and your competitive and you want to win, that's extremely

[00:30:23] hard to do.

[00:30:25] Um, it's almost kind of like catching lightning in a bottle.

[00:30:28] How do you approach that?

[00:30:29] Like throughout a round, you know, starting, uh, you know, starting and building a big score

[00:30:36] and getting to a stand like that, where you obviously you, if you hit all those targets,

[00:30:41] you shot a score that, you know, you might not have won.

[00:30:45] They would have been up there.

[00:30:46] Yeah.

[00:30:47] That was, that was kind of the separator of the whole week right there on that station.

[00:30:51] That was so hard.

[00:30:52] But, um, that kind of made, that made her break your, your overall score.

[00:30:57] I think if you're on a good score and you're feeling confident, you, it's very, very easy

[00:31:04] to go into that station, um, kind of tighten it up a little bit and knowing you're on a good

[00:31:09] ground and easy, if not impossible to get careful, to get tight.

[00:31:13] And I knew going into that station, I had made a couple of mistakes like that later or earlier

[00:31:18] in the week.

[00:31:19] I knew going into that station that if I was gonna, if I was going to fall apart, that's

[00:31:23] how I was going to do it.

[00:31:24] So I told myself that I did my best to get the score out of my mind.

[00:31:30] I did my best to put everything out of my mind that wasn't going to help me.

[00:31:35] And I only focused on that bird and I told myself that I'm only going to hit the next

[00:31:39] pair and that's all I'm going to worry about.

[00:31:41] You know, everybody always talking about this subject, you know, I see you and Zach, uh,

[00:31:49] following Zach and, and, um, I see you guys don't spend a lot of time prior to the shot

[00:31:57] and prior to calling pull.

[00:31:58] Obviously I'm pretty renowned for taking a long time thinking about things, looking,

[00:32:05] looking at the line and, uh, you know, just, just really taking my time.

[00:32:10] Um, you know, as you go through a round, do you think, you know, for, for me, it's a lot

[00:32:16] about building up confidence between one shot and the other, you know, I'm releasing, you

[00:32:21] know, I'm, I get pretty tense.

[00:32:22] I mean, you know, I'm trying to make sure that I'm, I kind of come back to, as Wendell

[00:32:26] always said at zero, you know, I want to make sure that, that my confidence is up for the

[00:32:31] next pair.

[00:32:32] I'm locked into where the line is as, as you, but there's a trade-off in that as you take

[00:32:38] more time, there's a lot, there's a lot of time for other thoughts to enter your mind.

[00:32:43] Yeah, that's exactly what I was going to say.

[00:32:45] It's like, you can either, you can either shoot as fast as you can, like say Brandon does,

[00:32:50] or that doesn't give you a lot of time to, um, make sure that everything in your routine

[00:32:55] or your plan is right, but it also prevents other things from creeping in your mind and

[00:33:00] allowing you to get tight or careful.

[00:33:02] You kind of, it's kind of a win lose.

[00:33:03] You could do it either way, but whatever way you do it, you have to be good at.

[00:33:06] Yeah.

[00:33:07] I mean, I shot with Brandon all, all week up until the final day.

[00:33:10] And, and, um, he, I, he shoots so fast that he shoots faster than anybody I've ever,

[00:33:19] I've ever seen.

[00:33:20] It was like two polar opposites, me and him shooting together.

[00:33:23] But, you know, that's one thing that I, obviously I analyze my own game and I think about, you

[00:33:32] know, I always think back on tournaments just, I'm sure just like you do.

[00:33:35] And I think about, you know, what did I feel?

[00:33:38] Why did I miss those?

[00:33:39] Did I get tight?

[00:33:41] And, uh, you know, I'm almost starting to think the quicker I shoot the, the better,

[00:33:46] the better I do.

[00:33:47] And coming into a situation like you just described, you know, I don't know that I would have shot

[00:33:52] coming into that stand as hard as it was on that good of a round that you had going.

[00:33:57] Um, you know, you have to have everything, all positive thoughts and be, have your head right

[00:34:03] where it needs to be to, I mean, even shoot a three there with all that pressure on you.

[00:34:08] But, um, anyway, let me ask this, Tom, you started on station one, right?

[00:34:14] Tom.

[00:34:15] Yeah.

[00:34:15] All right.

[00:34:16] Connor was finishing on station one.

[00:34:18] What's the difference, uh, going into that day being you versus being him.

[00:34:24] So you start out missing four and Connor, you know, ended missing three.

[00:34:31] So which would you rather be?

[00:34:34] I mean, would you rather start out dropping that many or finish dropping?

[00:34:37] I mean, I wouldn't much rather finish that way because it's, it's much harder.

[00:34:43] I'm sure you felt the same way, Tom.

[00:34:44] Uh, it's much harder to recover after a station like that, shaking confidence.

[00:34:49] And you, you kind of get in there and you miss the first pair, two pairs like you did

[00:34:53] and everything felt right.

[00:34:55] And, um, yeah, it's just kind of like makes you second guess yourself throughout the rest

[00:35:00] of the round.

[00:35:01] I think I shot it.

[00:35:02] I mean, I, I started pretty rough.

[00:35:03] I missed two on my first station, which was station four.

[00:35:06] And it was by far one of the easier stations in the course.

[00:35:10] And that was just cause I was tight and I'm sure if I would have started on that station,

[00:35:14] I would have missed a lot more than three, but shooting it where shooting it and like in

[00:35:19] the round where I did, I think it was, I think it was the best possible spot for me to shoot

[00:35:25] it.

[00:35:25] Cause it wasn't exactly the last station, but it was, it was one of my final stations that

[00:35:31] I wasn't as tight as I would be for it being my last station.

[00:35:35] But I feel like I had a lot of confidence going into that station.

[00:35:40] And, um, yeah, I think I did pretty much as well as I, I probably could have done any

[00:35:45] other at any other spot.

[00:35:47] I can't really say where I really don't want to shoot a start a station that hard regardless

[00:35:51] of where I am.

[00:35:53] Um, but I don't want to miss four.

[00:35:56] I don't want to miss two pairs anywhere beginning or the end of the course, but I, it's a, it's

[00:36:02] a mental battle after you step up there and miss four, especially, especially after, you

[00:36:07] know, you see that it can be almost ran, you know, Zach shoots a five.

[00:36:12] I, I honestly don't think it was runnable.

[00:36:14] I mean, maybe, maybe you could shoot five out of six and you're shooting better than

[00:36:20] everybody there if you shoot that way.

[00:36:22] But I think it was, I think it was crazy because it was such a, such a difference compared to

[00:36:28] all the targets we had shot all week.

[00:36:30] And, um, it kind of threw everybody off because everybody was used to shooting everything

[00:36:34] inside 40 yards and being able to run stations with ease.

[00:36:39] And, um, I think it was a, especially for y'all on y'all's first station, I think it was

[00:36:45] definitely a weird spot to put that station.

[00:36:48] It was a, yeah, I think it might've been a little too hard than it needed to be.

[00:36:52] But, um, I feel like, I mean, the targets were edible and they weren't, there was nothing

[00:36:58] bad about the presentation and there wasn't, I mean, you could see the birds well and, or

[00:37:03] I guess I could, I don't know how the sun was when y'all were shooting it, but, um, I feel

[00:37:07] like you had enough time to shoot the pairs.

[00:37:10] And I think it's just a tough pair that you had to be ready for.

[00:37:14] And it was hard for people to be ready for it.

[00:37:16] Yeah.

[00:37:16] I mean, it was a hard pair.

[00:37:17] Other people shot it really well, but you know, I think, I think it, at that it's, it's

[00:37:22] two different mindsets and how you approach that, you know, for, for me, I miss those

[00:37:27] and I think, okay, why?

[00:37:28] I mean, I'm really, this is a, this is a bad way to start thinking, but you, it's a mental

[00:37:33] battle to stay positive after that.

[00:37:35] Um, to, to say, you know, I'm not in it because you're almost, I mean, everybody at

[00:37:39] that point thinks, you know, well, you just blew it right there, but you have to consciously

[00:37:44] combat that with positive thoughts.

[00:37:47] And, and it's really a mental battle because you know, deep down, regardless of what you

[00:37:51] say, you know, you can't miss many more, you know, or any.

[00:37:55] Um, and you know, I, I, I shot the rest of the course pretty well until the second to

[00:38:00] last station.

[00:38:01] And I just, I mean, I simple, I just got too careful, got to a target that I misread.

[00:38:08] And as I kept missing it, I just kept getting careful.

[00:38:10] But, but, uh, you know, as opposed to finishing there, you know, you have a good round and you're

[00:38:16] protecting a good round.

[00:38:17] You know, if you, if you start there and you miss four, like I did, you know, you're,

[00:38:24] you know, you have to go get the rest of them.

[00:38:26] Whereas you finish there, you know, you can't miss those, you know, so it's, it's a, it's,

[00:38:34] it's a battle.

[00:38:35] And I think, you know, at the, at the top level, you know, it, it, it comes down to a hundred

[00:38:40] percent mental.

[00:38:41] You know, I think the people that I see that are shooting really well, um,

[00:38:47] have, uh, you know, they're very confident in the way they're shooting and, um, you know,

[00:38:54] they're not over, over, they're not making it more complicated than it really is.

[00:38:58] And, and when you're shooting well, that's easy to do when you're shooting well, everything

[00:39:01] seems simple, but.

[00:39:03] Right.

[00:39:04] Yeah.

[00:39:04] It's easy to rush your routine and kind of think nothing of it, but, um, that pair, you

[00:39:10] gotta be on your game.

[00:39:11] It, it kind of, I mean, when I shot it, it kind of, it really hurt missing three,

[00:39:16] three targets there.

[00:39:17] And I went back and looked at the scores and I mean, if I hit three more targets on

[00:39:21] that course, it would have, it would have tied me for third overall.

[00:39:24] And I mean, that would have been a great spot to be in.

[00:39:26] I know, I know you definitely were battling, trying to get the thoughts out of your head

[00:39:32] of, oh my gosh, I can't miss anymore after that missing four there.

[00:39:35] But, um, I mean, that station anywhere in the course is gonna, it's gonna rally in some

[00:39:39] way.

[00:39:40] Oh yeah.

[00:39:41] Yeah.

[00:39:41] Well, I mean, what you just said there is, you know, you think back about, you know,

[00:39:45] if I'd hit those, then I'd be at third, but that's really what keeps driving you to the

[00:39:49] next year.

[00:39:50] You know, you have all kinds of things that you will, and you you're so young and, you

[00:39:54] know, I guess I am too.

[00:39:55] I mean, really everybody is, if you, if you're shooting and you're going out and you're

[00:39:58] traveling to these, you should have this mindset.

[00:40:00] I mean, of, of, you know, I'm learning and for the next tournament, you know, I'm going

[00:40:05] to do this different.

[00:40:06] I'm going to do this better.

[00:40:07] And for the next, you know, that's how you continually grow and evolve.

[00:40:10] And that's how the sport's gotten.

[00:40:12] I mean, so good.

[00:40:13] I think people, the competition level has gotten good and, and it is because, you know,

[00:40:18] there's a lot of young people in the sport.

[00:40:20] But I mean, if you look at the top scores, I mean, you know, and that's, that plays a factor

[00:40:24] into how you think about around, you know, you look at people like Brandon, obviously,

[00:40:30] Anthony too.

[00:40:31] I mean, you look at Anthony, you look at Zach.

[00:40:33] I mean, you look at all these big scores that are being shot.

[00:40:35] It almost puts you in a mindset where I can't miss if I want to win.

[00:40:40] And, you know, the people that have that fire, like you spoke about in the beginning that,

[00:40:45] you know, they, they have to continually think about, they have to continually remember the

[00:40:51] things that they did.

[00:40:52] Like you were talking about at nationals, the mindset you were in and improve upon that

[00:40:56] and learn on that to get better and better.

[00:40:58] And, and those are the people that, that consistently stay at the top.

[00:41:05] So, you know, it's a, it's, it's a simple, you know, the people that do it well, simplify

[00:41:09] the game, but there's, there's a lot going on behind the scenes, behind the curtains that,

[00:41:14] that makes somebody good.

[00:41:16] And obviously you're, you know, you're, you're doing all that stuff at such a young age, you

[00:41:22] know, and there's a lot of people that have done well young, but, but I mean, you know,

[00:41:26] the biggest thing I didn't know before we got on this podcast is you really only started

[00:41:30] competing heavily four years ago, you know?

[00:41:33] So I, uh, I'm pretty anxious to, I'm pretty, uh, you know, you have a lot of support, a lot

[00:41:42] of good coaching and, and, I mean, you're already very advanced, you know, you, I think you should

[00:41:48] have been on the pro squad.

[00:41:49] I think the criteria maybe needs to change, but, um, you know, I'm appreciative they did

[00:41:54] what they did.

[00:41:55] And, and, um, yeah, I mean, just the fact that we have the pro squad, I think it's, it's an

[00:42:00] awesome idea and sure some things didn't go right, but I mean, it's never going to be

[00:42:04] perfect.

[00:42:04] I mean, it's pretty much impossible to make it perfect, but they did their best.

[00:42:08] And I think, I think it worked out really well this year.

[00:42:11] And I think that's, what's good for the sport and to keep trying to make it better.

[00:42:14] And that's, what's gonna, that's, what's going to make everything good.

[00:42:17] You know, speaking about that, I'll touch on this just for a second.

[00:42:20] Prior to going and shooting, Justin was involved some kind of way.

[00:42:24] They, they asked him to, what'd they ask you to do?

[00:42:27] Moderate it, commentate it.

[00:42:29] Whatever it's called.

[00:42:30] Yeah.

[00:42:31] Talking, doing what you're best at.

[00:42:33] Yeah.

[00:42:33] Yeah.

[00:42:34] And they took me, you know, they took me back and showed me the, the trailer and all

[00:42:39] the cameras and, and they, they spared no thought or expense into doing their best to try to make

[00:42:45] this thing work.

[00:42:46] And I, you know, I think that's something as people watch it, you know, it's, you take

[00:42:51] that into consideration.

[00:42:52] They spent some serious money trying to produce this.

[00:42:57] Didn't they just, yeah, it's hard to do that live.

[00:43:00] You know, a lot of people I've read some comments to where they're like, uh, wasn't

[00:43:04] that good?

[00:43:04] Did it lagged out?

[00:43:05] Did this, that, another, well, the behind the scenes part of that is we streamed to

[00:43:11] Vimeo.

[00:43:12] We streamed to a YouTube and Facebook and Facebook and YouTube.

[00:43:15] They don't like what we do, right?

[00:43:18] They're not going to, they're not going to just let you put it out there.

[00:43:21] So, uh, that, that was on for a few minutes and it was, it was kicked off.

[00:43:26] And then we had to just straight go to Vimeo, but to have the amount of equipment that's

[00:43:30] there, amount of people that's there behind the scenes.

[00:43:34] And for it all to even be broadcast to where you can see it live was actually pretty cool,

[00:43:40] you know, because all of that had to work together.

[00:43:43] There was cameras everywhere.

[00:43:45] They all fed into this trailer and then the guys working the trailer, they had a sound

[00:43:50] guy, they had, uh, you know, a video guy that had a commercial guy, you know, it was

[00:43:56] really complicated versus what someone would have just seen by watching it.

[00:44:02] You know what I mean?

[00:44:03] It, it, it might've looked, it might not have looked the best, but you also got to think

[00:44:08] everything depends on, uh, wifi.

[00:44:12] Do you have internet and everything depends on if the person's doing it the right way

[00:44:16] as far as in the trailer.

[00:44:18] And you got to do it right.

[00:44:19] The first time there is no editing in that scenario.

[00:44:21] Yeah.

[00:44:22] Since y'all brought, since you brought that up, Tom, Kaylee Lawson, the girl that was

[00:44:27] hosting it with me, she ran station one.

[00:44:30] Just so y'all know.

[00:44:31] Wow.

[00:44:32] Dang.

[00:44:33] Dang.

[00:44:36] Yeah.

[00:44:37] That's what I said.

[00:44:38] She's the only one that ran it.

[00:44:39] Yeah.

[00:44:40] I don't have much to say about that.

[00:44:41] That's, that's incredible.

[00:44:43] She's probably the, the, or one of the only people at that shoot to run that station.

[00:44:48] That's, that's crazy.

[00:44:50] That's what I said.

[00:44:51] Yeah.

[00:44:52] So Connor, listen, this is your last year of high school.

[00:44:57] Is that, I mean, are you excited about that?

[00:44:59] Are you nervous about going to college?

[00:45:01] It's exciting and nervous at the same time, but, um, I'm looking forward to it.

[00:45:06] I'm trying to savor the last couple of months I have here.

[00:45:09] Um, I don't know exactly what I'm doing for college yet, but whatever it is, I'm looking

[00:45:13] forward to it.

[00:45:14] What do you want to, uh, major in, in college?

[00:45:18] Do you know?

[00:45:18] I, right now I've been looking at either, uh, mechanical engineering or manufacturing engineering,

[00:45:24] something that'll, that'll correlate into kind of working for my dad or working in the

[00:45:29] same industry and manufacturing things.

[00:45:32] And yeah, like something, I think my dad, um, I think my dad went Georgia Southern and

[00:45:38] he did something similar and he said that was the best fit for him and what he does now

[00:45:44] as a business.

[00:45:45] Um, so I, I said.

[00:45:47] He's an engineer too, right?

[00:45:48] Yeah.

[00:45:49] That's what I thought.

[00:45:50] Okay.

[00:45:50] But you don't know what college you're going to?

[00:45:52] No, sir.

[00:45:53] I have no idea.

[00:45:54] Um, I've, I've been to a couple of colleges.

[00:45:57] I've toured a couple and I have a lot more to tour, but I haven't really made any decisions

[00:46:02] yeah.

[00:46:03] Um, I plan to do so in the next couple of months, but it's still, still a lot to think

[00:46:09] about and I really haven't had time to sit down and think about it.

[00:46:12] You probably are thinking, do I stay in state or go out of state?

[00:46:16] Right.

[00:46:17] Right.

[00:46:18] That's, that's kind of the big, the big, like, what am I going to do?

[00:46:21] It's either going to, I'm either going to go far and move away from home and kind of

[00:46:28] live on my own, or I'm going to stay close and go to some local college that I can stay

[00:46:34] with my family and come home whenever I need to.

[00:46:37] And I think there's pros and cons to each one, but I'm still trying to decide what I'm

[00:46:41] going to do.

[00:46:42] I, I, there's no way I can see your mom letting you go off like that.

[00:46:48] I don't know.

[00:46:49] She, she's kind of, she's kind of written me on to go tour, um, a bunch of colleges that

[00:46:54] are pretty far away.

[00:46:55] So I don't know.

[00:46:56] Maybe she's trying to get rid of me.

[00:46:59] No, I doubt that.

[00:47:02] Yeah.

[00:47:02] We'll see.

[00:47:03] Yeah.

[00:47:04] And obviously I want to, I want to stay in this game as long as possible.

[00:47:07] I'm going to, I'm going to continue to shoot throughout college the same way I'm shooting

[00:47:11] now.

[00:47:11] And they probably even pass college on that.

[00:47:14] I'm going to continue to shoot as long as I can.

[00:47:17] Cause I mean, I love this game and it's given me so much and I really enjoy, enjoy shooting

[00:47:23] and competing.

[00:47:25] I think the competing part is the best part about it.

[00:47:27] I'm, I'm a very competitive person.

[00:47:28] And I, I just love the, uh, the constant like competing and getting ready for tournaments

[00:47:35] and trying to be your absolute best whenever you can.

[00:47:38] One thing I, and this is kind of off topic, but one thing, you know, talking to Connor,

[00:47:43] somebody young and, you know, I grew up in the sport and easily you look at people talked

[00:47:47] about young, good shots, Joe and Todd.

[00:47:50] And, and, uh, I don't know that I'm the most qualified to talk about this, but you know,

[00:47:55] as you, as you know, if you look at a lot of people that shoot and they go to school,

[00:48:01] they go to college and, and, and they've grown up in an environment.

[00:48:05] Like if, if, if you're in shooting, it's such a good environment to be in.

[00:48:09] It seems like most kids that grow up shooting or around shooting end up, you know, being

[00:48:15] much more mature, well-behaved.

[00:48:18] Um, you know, they, they've been around a lot of places.

[00:48:20] They've spoken to a lot of people and, um, you know, I just, I think that, you know, the

[00:48:27] college experience and being able to shoot afterwards and, and, you know, whoever, I mean,

[00:48:31] obviously you have a great situation, but, but, you know, people that are in the sport

[00:48:37] seem to grow up in the sport, seem to have, um, you know, a lot more skills, communication

[00:48:43] skills.

[00:48:44] I know that's a big topic for a lot of kids these days, but.

[00:48:47] Right.

[00:48:48] I mean, yeah, you look at, you look at any of the people my age or older, I mean, they,

[00:48:52] they're much more well-rounded people than most kids our age.

[00:48:57] And I think mainly that's just because of not only the competing part, but meeting people

[00:49:03] and talking to people that are older and have been through what, what we have.

[00:49:08] It's kind of just a learning experience and people that are my age.

[00:49:13] And I can say this for myself that I can just sit back and listen to people talk.

[00:49:17] And it's just an endless amount of information that, I mean, it's just, it's so easy to learn

[00:49:22] and kind of mature as you grew up in the sport.

[00:49:26] And I feel like it's going to be, it's going to give back you and make you a much better

[00:49:30] person than you normally would be on your own.

[00:49:34] Yeah.

[00:49:34] I mean, this sounds, it sounds kind of weird, but I mean, it's an enjoyable sport.

[00:49:38] It's almost, uh, for young people, it's almost an education, just the experiences and education,

[00:49:43] um, in itself, just be, just being able to go to these tournaments, um, and be around.

[00:49:49] Cause most people that go and compete and, and travel there, they're, they're pretty

[00:49:54] smart people.

[00:49:55] You know, they do, they, they're people you want to listen to, especially as a kid.

[00:50:00] So, you know, I see that a lot in, in you as well.

[00:50:05] There's a lot of successful people in shooting sports, right?

[00:50:09] There's a lot of smart, uh, people, a lot of business people and for, for the kids to

[00:50:15] be hanging around, not with, not actually hanging around them, just being around them.

[00:50:20] You know, uh, there's a lot of things.

[00:50:23] I mean, that's how I met time.

[00:50:24] I met a lot of great people in this sport and learned a lot of good things.

[00:50:28] They don't even have nothing to do with shooting.

[00:50:30] Right.

[00:50:31] You know, just, just in general.

[00:50:33] And it's such a good sport to be in, especially with kids.

[00:50:36] I could leave my 11 year old anywhere out there.

[00:50:40] And I know that nothing's going to happen to him.

[00:50:42] Somebody good or something, you know what I mean?

[00:50:44] That's just pretty much anybody there.

[00:50:47] Everybody there is pretty much a good person.

[00:50:49] You rarely come across a bad person that shoots.

[00:50:52] I don't know that I ever have.

[00:50:54] I, I, I might've once, but I mean, but I'm not going to say, I've been a couple, but I mean, mostly everybody you meet is, is a good person.

[00:51:09] And, um, I think that has to do with just the way the sport is.

[00:51:13] And it's kind of, it's kind of weird.

[00:51:15] You think about it like that.

[00:51:16] I mean, there's, there's everybody in the sport.

[00:51:18] I feel like it's somebody that you can talk to and learn something from and trust.

[00:51:22] And I think that's a, it's a good reason why most of these people are in the sport.

[00:51:26] Uh, do you ever shoot with Desi?

[00:51:28] Desi?

[00:51:29] Um, did you ever take lessons from her?

[00:51:31] Was it totally Zach?

[00:51:32] I never, I never took lessons from Desi, but I mean, every, pretty much every time I'm excited with Zach and with Desi too.

[00:51:38] So, I mean, she shoots, I mean, many people don't know this, but she shoots a little different than Zach does.

[00:51:43] And, um, it's kind of interesting to see how she shoots.

[00:51:46] And I've learned a little bit from just practicing with her a little bit with Zach and shooting with her.

[00:51:52] I mean, anybody, anybody that shoots as well as Zach or Desi does, and you shoot with them as much as I do, you're going to, you're going to pick something out from them.

[00:51:59] Well, you know, I'm sure you've picked this up, but I've been around Zach and Desi for a long time and she's what makes that.

[00:52:05] She's what makes that tick.

[00:52:06] She's the smartest one out of the two.

[00:52:09] Yeah.

[00:52:12] I was just going to say, do you imagine how good you would be if you took lessons from her?

[00:52:17] He would have won nationals for sure.

[00:52:19] Yeah, I think so.

[00:52:22] You know, we got to give, I bring it up all the time.

[00:52:25] Zach's name gets brought up on every one of these episodes.

[00:52:28] And I can't, I can't avoid it.

[00:52:32] He's the godfather.

[00:52:33] He's the godfather of sporting clays.

[00:52:36] There's no way to avoid.

[00:52:38] And I've tried not having his name associated with the podcast in the, in the show.

[00:52:44] It's every time we do one, his name gets brought up.

[00:52:46] So every time it does, I'm going to have to make fun of him.

[00:52:49] Yeah.

[00:52:50] You know what I mean?

[00:52:50] So, well, Connor, you've got several great sponsors that have, have been with you for a couple of years now.

[00:52:59] Uh, and some new ones who, uh, who are those and, uh, or who else would you like to thank?

[00:53:05] Yeah.

[00:53:07] Um, my sponsors are Beretta USA, Winchester ammunition, white, white flyer targets, clay target vision, cast on a USA and cool gunsmithing.

[00:53:19] And, um, I also like to thank, um, my coach Zach and I'd like to thank my parents for getting me at all shoots and doing everything they do for me.

[00:53:28] Yeah.

[00:53:28] I mean, it's, that's a lineup right there.

[00:53:31] And, uh, you can't, you can't do it without the people, you know, behind them and the people behind you.

[00:53:37] So, um,

[00:53:38] That's right.

[00:53:38] It's definitely, it's definitely good to be backed by some of the best in sport.

[00:53:42] And, uh, I think if, I think I have the opportunity to be put in the best products and, um, I think if I have the best products and I have the opportunity, I feel like that's the ultimate key to succeeding.

[00:53:54] Yeah, I agree.

[00:53:55] I think that's about all we got, man.

[00:53:57] I mean, we can sit here probably for another hour and talk, honestly, about different stuff, but I don't, you know, it's, uh, it's, it's, it's been good.

[00:54:07] I've enjoyed listening to what you had to say.

[00:54:09] And, uh, you know, I wish you all the best in going forward and choosing the right school.

[00:54:16] Uh, anybody looking for somebody that can shoot on their shooting team, this might be the guy, you know, get ahold of him.

[00:54:26] Yeah.

[00:54:27] But I appreciate you coming on.

[00:54:29] I appreciate Tom spending some time with us too.

[00:54:31] And, and, uh, asking some of these questions and, uh, I guess we'll wait to the next one.

[00:54:38] We'll do it again.

[00:54:39] Yeah, it was definitely a good conversation.

[00:54:41] Thank you all for having me on.

[00:54:42] Really enjoyed it.

[00:54:43] Yeah.

[00:54:44] Yeah.

[00:54:44] I appreciate it.

[00:54:45] I enjoyed it.

[00:54:46] I know, I know, uh, I know we'll be having some more interviews and stuff in the future.

[00:54:53] Um, I know, I know there's, uh, there's some wins coming, coming for you.

[00:54:58] I can tell it.

[00:54:59] All right, guys.

[00:55:00] Well, catch y'all next time.

[00:55:03] We'll see you next time.

[00:55:03] Weулittä transforma.

[00:55:03] Thank you.