KCHS grad takes aim as student-athlete at collegiate level

CHESTERTOWN — Pun intended, a seed was planted about two years ago when David Daniels’ practice with the Triple Shots 4-H program overlapped with Washington College’s trap and skeet team at the Sudlersville Skeet Club.

That’s when Daniels, now 18 and a 2025 graduate of Kent County High School, started to think that perhaps he could help out on the family’s farm in Golts and be a college athlete.

Daniels said he’d never really given any thought to continuing as a student-athlete beyond high school — he lettered four times in lacrosse at KCHS and was a captain this spring — until he found out that collegiate shooting sports was “a real thing” when, fortuitously, he crossed paths with Shoremen head coach Doug Pfaff.

Until then, Daniels said, he was leaning toward signing on with a local electricians union’s apprentice program upon graduation from KCHS.

Once Washington’s coaches showed genuine interest in him as a student-athlete, Daniels was all in.

He never applied anywhere else.

The Shoremen’s highly regarded trap and skeet program was a big draw, Daniels acknowledged in a recent interview with The Evening Enterprise.

Washington placed ninth overall (six disciplines) among 31 Division III schools in this year’s collegiate clay target national championships. 

Just two years ago, Washington took the top prize in the super sporting clays event — the college’s first national title since its men’s lacrosse team won it all in 1998.

Russ Parson, who has been involved in Kent County 4-H’s shooting sports since 2007, said Washington College is getting a winner in Daniels.

“He’s motivated. When he likes something, he jumps in with both feet,” Parson said of Daniels, who is aging out of the Triple Shots club this year after longtime membership. 

Parson described Daniels as “very dedicated.”

“When he puts his mind to it, he will carry through to the best of his ability,” Parson said.

“People respect David,” Parson added. “He’s been there, done that. His outgoingness, his devotion to whatever he puts his mind into, 4-H, FFA, his church, his community … . He’s a man of character.”

At Kent County High School, Daniels was a member of the National Art Honor Society and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, completed the automotive technology and Project Lead the Way engineering pathways, was enrolled in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Academy and was a four-year member of the Future Farmers of America where he served as chapter sentinel — in addition to being a varsity letter winner in lacrosse.

Daniels was the alternate, i.e. fifth man, on the Maryland 4-H Shotgun Team that competed in the National 4-H Shooting Sports Invitational in Nebraska last month. 

In January he was invited to the annual Grand National Waterfowl Hunt in Dorchester County, which combines the sporting experience of waterfowl hunting with a strong emphasis on conservation efforts and environmental education.

Daniels is the second KCHS alumnus in as many years to be recruited for Washington College’s shooting sports program, joining 2024 graduate Trice Moore.

Daniels’ matriculation to Washington College comes at the same time as Kent County High School is moving toward adding a clay target club team. The Board of Education is expected to vote on the proposal at its Aug. 11 meeting.

At Washington, Daniels intends to major in environmental science and minor in business/finance.

He will live at home.

It’s a commute that he doesn’t consider a hardship given it’s just 6 miles more than what he was driving from Golts to high school in Worton. Plus, he’ll be able to help out on the family farm that grows corn and soybeans and raises beef cattle.

Daniels said he has been fortunate to be awarded a “very generous” academic scholarship as well as merit scholarships.

He said it will feel strange not to be playing lacrosse any longer, but “shooting sports are really going to make up for that.”