STEPHENVILLE — You know you’re in one of life’s positive phases when you answer a question about your future with, “It depends on how it goes at the Olympics.”
Tarleton State University senior Conner Prince is in one of those phases after qualifying to represent his country in skeet shooting at the upcoming Paris Olympics. He and his teammate and coach, Vincent Hancock, qualified in March at the Olympic trials in Tucson.
“It’s a dream come true,” Prince said. “But to be honest, it hasn’t really set in that I’m going to the Olympics.
“If you had told me 10 years ago when I started shooting that I’d be here, I’d have laughed in your face. It only happens once every four years, and the fact that me and my coach get to go over there and experience it together is quite an honor.”
A manufacturing and industrial management major, Prince began shooting on the Spartan Clay Target Team as a freshman at Centennial High School in Burleson. He started seriously competing in the Olympic discipline as a junior at the suggestion of a successful fellow competitor.
“A former USA Shooting athlete named Dustin Perry reached out to us because he was new to Burleson and wanted to get back into clay target sports. He was the one who really recognized that I had a skill, and he got me more heavily into the discipline.”
Prince’s appearance at the recent Olympic trials marked his second attempt.
“I tried to qualify in 2020, but I was really new to the sport,” he said. “After that, I began working out and training harder, getting my mental game down.”
His weekly training regimen, which begins in earnest three or four weeks before competition, includes six or seven days of shooting, plus two or three days of physical training. “Skeet shooters don’t need to be insanely strong, but we need stamina. I lift weights mainly, a little cardio, but mainly weights.”
Prince attended Hill College for two years before searching for a four-year institution that met the needs of his atypical schedule. He wanted a school with a flexible timetable.
“I’d have liked to go in person, but that wasn’t really going to work while I’m competing. I looked into Tarleton and saw they had a lot of what I was looking for online. I decided to try it out, and it ended up working out in my favor.”
He hopes to graduate in December, but that goal comes with a stipulation.
“That’s kind of a moving target. It will depend a lot on what the Olympics is like and what happens after. I’ve been working for years and years to try to make this team, and all my previous classmates have graduated and have their jobs.
“I think it’s worth it, though.”
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