{"id":9707,"date":"2022-07-29T14:54:03","date_gmt":"2022-07-29T18:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=9707"},"modified":"2023-02-15T10:59:38","modified_gmt":"2023-02-15T15:59:38","slug":"womens-rifle-team-wins-2022-southern-conference-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2022\/07\/29\/womens-rifle-team-wins-2022-southern-conference-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s Rifle Team Wins 2022 Southern Conference Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The flashing lights of the black SUV escort was the first thing you saw. Then the bus holding the Georgia Southern Rifle Team rounded the corner towards the Shooting Sports Education Center on March 6, their homecoming from the 2022 conference meet. Cheerleaders, coaches and fans hooted and hollered as the Southern Conference Rifle Champions stepped from the bus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just incredible how Georgia Southern and the athletics department has supported us,\u201d said recently retired head coach Sandra Worman. \u201cEspecially for small teams like rifle, the way they support us makes a big difference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Georgia Southern Rifle Team won the 2022 Southern Conference (SoCon) Rifle title, the first in program history. The competition included two types of shooting, small bore shooting and air rifle, and the Eagles have taken championships in specific categories over the last five years, but never the overall title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I think we’ve always been known, but I think people are starting to just be more wary of us now,\u201d said Ashley Judson, SoCon Air Rifle Athlete of the Year and Pinnacle Award winner for highest GPA. \u201cIt’s more like the other teams say \u2018lookout, here, they come\u2019 when they see us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Smallbore Champion and Smalbore Athlete of the Year, Erin Ballard feels the team is getting a lot more attention and has noticed the change around campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow people are always saying \u2018Oh, you’re that girl on the rifle team, aren’t you?\u2019\u201d said Ballard. \u201cAnd they say, \u2018Oh my gosh, I saw in that email that your team just won that match, that’s so cool.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mental toughness the team has worked on paid off as Ballad, Judson and Amy Visconti earned All-Southern Conference Air Rifle Team and smallbore Team honors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worman recently announced her retirement and leaves on a high note after winning the championship. After helming the program for five years, earning SoCon Rifle Coach of the Year for the third time as well as nominated for the national coach of the year by the Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association, she leaves the team prepared for the new coach with all members returning for next season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soren Butler joined the team as the new coach in May after spending five seasons as an assistant coach with the perennial rifle powerhouse, University of West Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I would just like to thank Jared Benko, Chris Davis, Brandy Clouse and the entire administration at Georgia Southern for this opportunity to fulfill my dream of leading a college rifle team,” Butler said. “I was blown away with the sincere support and welcome I received from every staff member I was able to meet. I think this program has some of the best facilities in the country as well as endless opportunities in front of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked the first things he will do at Georgia Southern, Butler was quick to respond. \u201cI\u2019m going to start building a relationship with an already great team and jump right on the recruiting train.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014\u00a0Liz Walker<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The flashing lights of the black SUV escort was the first thing you saw. Then the bus holding the Georgia Southern Rifle Team rounded the corner towards the Shooting Sports Education Center on March 6, their homecoming from the 2022 conference meet. Cheerleaders, coaches and fans hooted and hollered as the Southern Conference Rifle Champions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":9710,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[70],"class_list":["post-9707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","tag-fall-2022"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}