"We are extremely excited to have Julia join the Skyhawk family," Hunter said. "We are impressed with her enthusiasm and maturity, and her vision for the future of the Skyhawk program. She has a diverse background at the NCAA Division I and III levels and she will be a great fit for Fort Lewis College and Durango."
"I think that former coach Kelsey MacDonald has really pointed this program in the right direction and believe this team has a ton of potential," Decker said. "I couldn't be more excited to join the Skyhawk family and begin working with these enthusiastic student-athletes to bring home the RMAC women's lacrosse title."
Decker joins the Skyhawks' program after serving as the assistant women's lacrosse coach at Fresno State since 2012. As the assistant coach, Decker primarily coached the attack while offering assistance to defense and goalies when needed. This past season, she helped the Bulldogs to their first win against conference rival St. Mary's (Calif). In 2013, Fresno State recorded season highs for most points, goals, goals per game, assists, shots, shots on goal and saves. She also directed and created marketing tools for on-campus camps and clinics, utilized and administrated social media, and coordinated team travel.
In the 2011-12 season, Decker held the role as head women's lacrosse coach at Hilbert. At Hilbert, she built a first-year NCAA DIII program, communicating with more than 300 recruits and coaching contacts. Her responsibilities included creating marketing tools and utilizing social media to help build the program, and develop and plan fundraisers.
Decker's first college coaching experience came at SUNY Geneseo, where she was an assistant lacrosse and field hockey coach from 2009-11. At Geneseo, Decker assisted in the recruiting efforts, practice plans, scouting reports, preseason workouts and video breakdown. She helped coach seven all-conference selections and two all-region selections.
Decker graduated cum laude from SUNY Brockport in December 2008 with a bachelor's degree in physical education. In 2012, she graduated from Brockport with a master's in physical education-athletic administration. She was a member of the varsity women's lacrosse team from 2005-09 and guided the team to the 2008 ECAC championship title. She also helped the Golden Eagles to the 2007 ECAC championship game, and to the SUNYAC finals in '07 and '08.
A team captain in 2009, Decker left Brockport second all time in career points (204) and third all time in goals (141) while adding 104 career draw controls. Decker earned All-SUNYAC honors in 2008 as an attacker, and she was named to the SUNYAC Commissioner's Academic List in '08 and the SUNYAC All-Academic Team in '08 and '09, and earned the '09 Brockport women's lacrosse offensive player of the year honor.
Decker becomes the third head coach since Fort Lewis added women's lacrosse as a varsity sport in 2009.
