MU 72 | FALL 2024
Juli Fulks
Women’s Basketball Head Coach
Career background: Joined Marshall this year after coaching at Transylvania University in Lexington. Was named 2024 WBCA Division III National Coach of the Year following a 2023-24 season in which Transylvania finished 33-1 and advanced to the NCAA Division III Final Four for the second straight season.
You come to work every day, and the sign on your office says Head Coach at Marshall – what does that mean to you?
Coaching the women’s basketball team at Marshall is a tremendous honor and one that comes with responsibilities to our athletes, university and community. Our collective job is to create an atmosphere that enables our student-athletes to become the best versions of themselves on and off the court. It’s incredibly humbling every day to walk onto campus knowing the opportunities and responsibilities our staff has been given.
Tell us an interesting aspect of your job that we may not know about.
As coaches, we get the opportunity to be involved in the community in a variety of ways which lead to new and fun connections. One of my favorites so far was being a judge at Taco-Fest!
What do you hope is the biggest impact of your work?
Ultimately, our job is to grow and transform our student-athletes as basketball players, students and future professionals. We take their holistic development seriously, and our goal is that each player leaves Marshall University with the confidence to tackle anything in the future.
What do you love most about your job?
Watching student-athletes take on new challenges, embrace the struggle, put in the work and then find success is my favorite part of the job. Sometimes, this happens on the court, and other times, it’s passing a class or test that was incredibly challenging.
When you look into the future, what are the Marshall moments you hope to experience?
Chasing and winning championships is incredibly rewarding, and I look forward to our group embracing the challenge of being back-to-back Sun Belt Champions. My favorite part of chasing titles is it requires great commitment, sacrifice and a willingness to go all in — and the reward of accomplishing something great with a group exceeds anything you can accomplish in singularity.
What are your expectations for your first season as the head coach at Marshall?
Our primary goal is to represent Marshall University and our fan base in a manner worthy of this institution. We are going to show up every day, work hard and leave everything we have on the court.
What’s the feeling like as you take over for a coach who had success at Marshall?
It’s exciting to have the opportunity to continue the success Coach Caldwell had this past season. She demonstrated the ability Marshall Women’s Basketball has to compete in the Sun Belt and raised the expectations of everyone both in and out of the program. Our job is to continue building on last year’s success and continue finding ways to compete at a high level.
Based on your work, what do you know that you wish everyone knew?
I wish everyone understood the level of commitment and work our student-athletes put in daily to achieve success for our team, Marshall and our community. I have been inspired by their effort, competitive nature and willingness to learn.
