‘I needed that next step.’ Juli Fulks prepares for new challenge in leading Marshall.

Juli Fulks is ready to feel uncomfortable again.

Fulks, the longtime head coach of Transylvania women’s basketball, was announced on Friday morning as the new leader of Division I Marshall’s women’s basketball team.

She spent 10 seasons leading the Pioneers, including the program’s first national championship in 2023, six Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference regular-season titles and HCAC Tournament championships, as well as building what is now the eighth-longest win streak in NCAA basketball history, 64 games.

This season, Transylvania followed its undefeated, national title-winning campaign with an impressive 33-1 record, falling in the Final Four to eventual national champion New York University. Fulks secured her 400th career coaching victory in the Elite Eight, becoming one of few coaches to do so in 20 seasons of coaching. Fulks helped create a perennial power in recent years, and, because of that, she said in a press conference at Transylvania on Friday afternoon, began to feel a sense of readiness to move on.

“One of the things that we are always talking to our players about is that need for growth and some of that uncomfortableness that comes from change and opportunity,” Fulks explained. “And so I thought one of the best things about Transylvania was we had this rolling, and it was very predictable and we had built a really great system here.

“But that also was the piece that was the catalyst that it was time for growth. And I feel great about the plan here moving forward, which will be coming, but I felt like for me, I needed that next step. And I needed to get back to being uncomfortable in knowing some of the things we know, and then figuring out what I don’t know, and so I thought that was probably the catalyst of ‘it is starting to get really comfortable.’”

Marshall reached out to Fulks on Sunday through some mutual connections, and she and her family took a trip to Huntington this week to experience all that the university had to offer. Fulks said the reception was exactly as one would want.

“Met everybody, and the staff was incredibly positive, welcoming, all the things that you would want to hear,” Fulks said. “(They were) really excited about the future. And we are really excited. Our family’s excited to make this move.”

Fulks becomes the second consecutive Marshall women’s basketball head coaching hire to be pulled from a lower division. Kim Caldwell, formerly the head coach of Division II Glenville State, was named the Division I rookie coach of the year following her sole season with the Thundering Herd. During the 2023-24 campaign, Caldwell led Marshall to an overall record of 26-7 (17-1 Sun Belt) and an NCAA Tournament berth following a Sun Belt Tournament championship. Caldwell was recently hired by Tennessee.

Fulks took the time on Friday to thank Transylvania, particularly Dr. Holly Sheilley, Transy’s vice president of athletics, as well celebrated Marshall’s recent strides towards success.

“Transylvania is a great institution, and I’ve been very blessed and grateful to have the 10 years that I’ve had,” Fulks said. “Dr. Holly Sheilley, she has been an amazing supporter of everything we’ve done here. But equally excited. Marshall, what an amazing program. They’ve done a great job last year in starting the tide to all the success. … So super, super excited.”

When asked about the increase in responsibilities tied to recruiting, notably the step up to a national search and transfer portal navigation, Fulks said she’s looking forward to the challenge.

“I think every time you make a career move your recruiting base changes,” Fulks said. “And that allows new connections, new opportunities, new families to get in touch with. And so that part is really exciting for me. I assume this will still be some of our primary base between the states here, and we’ve had players on our roster now from West Virginia and all the surrounding states and so there’ll be a part of that that’ll stay the same and that’ll be a great fundamental thing that we stick with. But it’ll allow us to have a bigger reach, and we’re going to take advantage of that.”

According to the Women’s Basketball Blog, six players from Marshall’s 2023-24 roster have entered the transfer portal – Terah Harness, Aislynn Hayes, Alasia Hayes, Mahogany Matthews, Ro Scott and Sydni Scott.

Fulks, who spoke Friday morning with what remains of the 2023-24 Marshall roster, said that, at every level of the sport, “it’s a people business.”

“So we have to start with the people,” Fulks said. “… And I think when you always remember that, our job is to make sure they’re hitting all their goals, and we’re going to use basketball as the catalyst to do that. That is all the same. And at the end of the day, much of basketball is also, there are parts that are the same. Our work ethic, how we approach things, that’ll always be how we do this. And then obviously, the recruiting changes, there’s a huge difference and portal and all the ways that everything has changed in the last few years and that’ll be an exciting thing to kind of work our way through.”

Six of the 14 Sun Belt Conference teams ranked within the top 150 teams in the final NCAA NET rankings for the 2023-24 season. Marshall, No. 78, was the conference’s lone representative in the top 100.

“I’ve done some research,” Fulks said. “I mean, there are so many good teams in that league. And we’re going to try to go in and make our mark right away … It’ll be challenging, and we’re just going to do our best to find our way to the top.”

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