The Journey: Juli Fulks moves up to D-I ranks at Marshall

On3’s Talia Goodman is showcasing women’s college basketball coaches taking over at new schools. This is the seventh edition of the series – in which we’ll take a deeper look at some of the 50-plus coaches who took over new programs during a turbulent offseason. This time we learn more about Juli Fulks, the new coach at Marshall.

Juli Fulks bio

BORN: Dola, Ohio

EXPERIENCE: 2002-04: Defiance (assistant coach), 2004-14: Lewis & Clark (head coach), 2014-24: Transylvania (head coach)

PLAYED: Capital (1996-2000)

Why Marshall?

Juli Fulks had done it all at the Division III level. She led Transylvania to an NCAA D-III Championship and two Final Four appearances, along with earning the WBCA National Coach of the Year in 2024. 

“Transylvania was great to me, and I’m very lucky,” Fulks told On3. “I always feel like when you’re making a job change, if you can be excited and sad at the same time, things are going really well. That’s how I felt… Part of the willingness to look and consider [Marshall] was that it felt like we had just graduated our last group that had a lot of success and it was time for me to explore a new challenge.”

She had plenty of connections with Marshall and knew this would be an opportunity she couldn’t resist. The Thundering Herd invests resources into their women’s basketball program – an aspect of her decision she stressed. The community, internally and externally, values their women’s sports. 

“It fit my two things, which were great leadership and a place that really invests in women’s basketball,” Fulks said. “I felt lucky that I didn’t have to just take a job because it was the next job – I could really be selective.” 

And so she took the job – her first at the Division I level – and got to work. 

Juli Fulks’ coaching style, mindset

Juli Fulks comes to Marshall with decades of experience and a unique mindset on the culture she aims to bring. 

“I think the biggest piece that has always really mattered to me is we have a serving culture,” Fulks said. “I think leadership is about learning to serve others and so it’s my job to serve the assistant coaches and players. It’s my assistants’ job to serve the players and seniors’ job to serve down. I think that it’s a great mentality when you learn that leadership is just helping other people be successful.”

This mindset and her approach to coaching come from her unique background. As a biology major in college and a lover of psychology and all things science, Fulks has forged her approach by utilizing a scientific method built on research. 

While her beliefs on culture and her coaching approach remain the same, her teams always look different based on personnel, and Fulks looks to adjust her style annually based on this. 

“I think it is reflective of our players,” Fulks said of her playing style. “I’ve never been anybody that has a “system” and I think part of that is we’re always trying to get the best athletes that we can get – the ones that people would think ‘Hey, they’re not supposed to have them.’ We’re going after them and then we’re going to fit a system that makes sense for them…My system is one more point on the board. I don’t care what we do, as long as when the game is over, we won.”

Something you may not know about Fulks

Fulks is an introvert in a world full of extroverts. Coming from a science background, coaching was never even on her radar. But she’s grateful every day to be in a position to educate young women and help grow the greatest game in the world. 

“One of the things that seems to be a differentiator is that, in my mind, I’m an educator first,” Fulks said “My job really is to use basketball as the tool that grows young women. I love women’s basketball. I think it’s the greatest game in the world and I love all of the attention that it has gotten recently. Everybody is clearly understanding how amazing this game is. For me, it is the tool that we get to use because we are in the college setting. Our job is still to educate them and to use basketball to help them grow so that when they leave, they’re really successful for the rest of their life.”