Fulks resigns as head women’s basketball coach

After ten seasons at the helm of the Lewis & Clark women’s basketball team, head coach Juli Fulks has announced her resignation. Fulks, the winningest coach in L&C history, will leave the Pioneers to become just the sixth head coach in program history for the Transylvania University Pioneers in Lexington, Kentucky. 

“I am extremely grateful Lewis & Clark gave me the opportunity to lead their women’s basketball program 10 years ago.  Over the course of that time, I have made many great friendships, coached exceptional young women, and enjoyed the upward growth of our program to a national contender,” said Fulks. “Transylvania offers an opportunity to move back to friends and family in the Midwest and lead a great program that also values excellence on and off the court.”  

Fulks will be inheriting a program with a tradition of success as the Transylvania Pioneers have won back-to-back Heartland Conference titles. The transition will be familiar for Fulks as she started her collegiate coaching at Defiance College in 2002. 

During her time at Lewis & Clark, Fulks transformed a program that was 5-20 into a national powerhouse, in arguably one of the toughest basketball conferences in the country.  In 10 years, the Pioneers earned two Northwest Conference Championships, while making the NCAA Division III National Tournament on three occasions.

The Pioneers earned their best national ranking since transitioning to the NCAA under Fulks’ watch, being recognized as the fifth best team in the country at one point during the 2012-2013 season. Following that season, which saw the Pioneers reach the second round of the NCAA Tournament, Fulks was named the RUSSELL ATHLETIC/WBCA NCAA Division III Regional Coach of the Year for Region 8.

“We appreciate Juli’s dedication to the student-athletes and program during her time at Lewis & Clark. We wish her the best,” said Acting Director of Athletics Mark Pietrok.

A players coach, Fulks was named the NWC Coach of the Year following the 2010-2011 season, while coaching the Pioneers first ever NWC Player of the Year in Kristina Williams. Williams would go onto earn another Player of the Year honor before graduating, while also picking up two All-America First-Team honors her senior season, the firsts in program history.  In addition, Fulks has coached 24 NWC All-League players and two Fulbright Fellows. 

“Transylvania is lucky to have coach Fulks as their new head coach,” said Williams. “She is an amazing mentor on and off the court, stressing that doing better than average is vital to all future successes. She instills core values such as self-discipline, teamwork and service leadership in each player that comes through her program. For me personally she has continued to support me post graduation and remains a mentor. I am extremely grateful to her for all she’s done for me and wish her the best of luck in her new position.” 

Fulks came to Lewis & Clark in 2004-2005 from NCAA Division III Defiance College (Defiance, Ohio). With Fulks as an assistant coach, the Defiance Yellow Jackets finished the 2003-04 campaign with a 20-7 record, eight games better than their 2002-03 finish. Fulks also served as assistant softball coach, guiding her team to its first NCAA tournament appearance in school history in 2004.

Prior to her tenure at Defiance, Fulks was an assistant varsity basketball coach at Westerville North while also working as freshman coach in 2000-2001 and junior varsity coach in 2001-2002.

The college is looking forward to naming a new coach who will continue to grow the foundation that Fulks has built and take the team to the next level.