FAIRBANKS, AK – Alaska Nanooks rifle head coach Dan Jordan announced the signing of his first shooting recruit for the year, Michael Liuzza (LEE-oo-zah), a top prep shooter from New Orleans, Louisiana.
A three-year member of the West Feliciana 4H Club, Liuzza has built an impressive shooting resume over the course of his brief prep career, as he only began shooting in December of 2006.
A senior at Jesuit High School in New Orelans, Liuzza has been part of club teams that have captured the Louisiana State Championships in three-position air rifle for each of the last three years. His personal best performance included shooting a 591 out of 600.
In 2008, he was the Louisiana State Junior Olympic Champion for both smallbore and air rifle and this year, he won the National Rifle Association's 10-meter Air Rifle Junior Sectional championship title.
Last spring, Liuzza shot an 1188 (593, 595/600) in the USA Shooting Spring Selection en route to being named the Junior Champion.
Jordan was excited to sign a shooter of Liuzza's caliber to help bolster the Nanooks squad, who will lose four seniors to graduation in the spring, including six-time All-American and 2008 NCAA Individual Air Rifle Champion Patrik Sartz.
"Micheal is a great addition to the team," said Jordan. "He fits in well with the other shooters and knows what it takes to compete at the national level."
Liuzza, who will join the Nanooks in the fall of 2010, plans to study business administration at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
The Nanook shooters continue their 2009-10 campaign this weekend, when they host the United States Air Force Academy Falcons for a pair of matches on Friday and Saturday at the E.F. Horton Rifle Range located in the Patty Center. Both matches are set to begin at 8 a.m. with finals being shot in the evenings at 6 p.m.
