The Georgia-based disc manufacturer is emerging from a difficult two years.
December 11, 2024 by Charlie Eisenhood in News
The three-time USDGC champion and long-time Prodigy Discs athlete and employee Will Schusterick has been named the new CEO of the disc manufacturer, effective immediately.
After the heights of his professional disc golf career, Schusterick joined Prodigy in 2017 as a Sales Account Executive and became Sales Director two years later. He has held an equity stake in the company for years. Now, he is taking over the leadership reins from former CEO Mark Anderson, who left the company earlier in 2024.
“Im very excited to take the reins of Prodigy as we move into a new era,” Schusterick told Ultiworld Disc Golf. “We have some big plans for the future that will be announced in the coming weeks.”
Prodigy is working to emerge from a tumultuous period of the company’s history. In early 2023, the organization sued Gannon Buhr after he threatened to leave his endorsement contract early. The sides settled out of court and Buhr finished out his contract before signing with Discmania in 2024. Though Prodigy won the legal battle, the company’s reputation suffered from damaging filings from Buhr. In 2024, amidst an industry-wide sales slowdown, Prodigy struggled financially, laid off multiple staff members, and separated from two high-profile sponsored athletes — Väinö Mäkelä and Kevin Jones — mid-season.
The company has also taken criticism for poor plastic quality in some of their discs in recent years, with even sponsored touring pros caught on hot microphones complaining about chalkiness or sharp edges from flashing. Prodigy has started to acknowledge the manufacturing issues, writing in a website article in November that “there was a time where we fell short of what we needed to do to delivery quality. This includes times where disc flashing was present, discs became chalky, or just didn’t fly the way they needed to. It wasn’t good enough, we needed to take action.”
“Our newest molds are some of our best work,” they continued. “…This drive for quality has taken some time to rise above the shortcomings we have experienced and we still have work to do, but we’re proud of the product we’re making today. To those who have seen our shortcomings of the past: we’d love to show you what we’ve done recently – you might be surprised with what you find.”
Schusterick will step in as CEO with work to do to repair the reputation of the company in the wider disc golf world, though the company still has a dedicated fanbase. That will come amidst the potential departure of Prodigy-sponsored 2024 World Champion Isaac Robinson, who is expected to sign a new endorsement contract with a competitor in the coming weeks. Isaac’s brother Ezra, the only other top 25 finisher on the DGPT sponsored by Prodigy in 2024, has also been linked to other manufacturers this offseason as fans await his new contract.
Prodigy said in a press release that Schusterick “will continue to oversee the relationships with the company’s largest partners, maintain a direct hand in the planning of production, lend insights to the marketing team with current and future campaigns, work with Prodigy’s global teams, and much more. His love for the sport, passion for the brand, and institutional knowledge of the company will be put to good use as he enters the role of CEO.”
