Derek Fulk has always known and shown what it means to be a coach

Not everyone is meant to be a coach; it takes a special type of personality. But in the sports world, once a coach, always a coach.

Through commitment, effort and sacrifice, Derek Fulk has earned that title. He will always be known to thousands of young people as simply “coach.”

“I kind of do the same thing,” said Fulk. “I call Lyle Krall ‘coach.’ Now, here I am coaching with my coach. I enjoy it. I think sports can teach so many things you relate to in life. It does mean a lot when someone calls you ‘coach.’ Hopefully, they get what you’re trying to teach them.”

Fulk is no longer the head coach of the ELCO girls’ soccer program, but he still remains a coach. Fulk resigned from his position as the Raiders’ head man in July, and now Josh Deck is leading the program.

Fulk suffered a heart attack in January 2024 but felt well enough to coach the Raiders during last year’s fall season. But leading up to the 2025 fall campaign, the 56-year-old Fulk just didn’t feel right.

“I just felt it was time,” said Fulk. “I didn’t want to go down a road of not giving the kids all they deserved. I just decided I didn’t want to be a head coach. It may have been self-imposed. There were things I was stressing about with soccer. I thought it was the best for me not to have to worry about the things with being a head coach.

“Being an assistant coach, some people will tell you it’s the best job in the world. You get to coach, and you don’t have to worry about the things that the head coach has to worry about. You don’t have to put out fires or deal with issues.”

One night in January 2024, then a member of the ELCO girls’ basketball coaching staff, Fulk was at home asleep in bed.

“It was just surreal, kind of bizarre,” he said. “I woke up in the middle of the night and I didn’t feel well. Thank God I woke up. I called 911, and when the paramedic came, he hooked me up to an EKG (electrocardiogram) and told me, ‘You’re having a heart attack.’ I had 99% blockage in the main artery to my heart. They put a stint in my heart, and I had a defibrillator put in my chest.”

His departure from the ELCO girls’ soccer program may not have come the way he envisioned it, but Fulk knew it was time. During his 12-year tenure as the head coach, Fulk elevated a solid foundation into one of the top athletic programs in Lebanon County.

Under his guidance, ELCO compiled an overall mark of 176-60 and captured nine Lancaster-Lebanon section titles, an L-L League championship and back-to-back District Three championships in 2018 and 2019.

“I’m very proud of what we did as a staff,” said Fulk. “I had fantastic assistant coaches, and obviously you have to have great kids. We had some talented players. You don’t win without talent. We were fortunate to have a good run of talented players.

“I miss my other head coaches. I had some really good relationships with other head coaches. I have a number of guys I coached against who are good friends of mine. I miss my assistant coaches tremendously. I miss being around the kids, too.”

While Fulk seems to have put head coaching duties in the rearview mirror, he remains active as an assistant coach, a pursuit that has helped define his contributions to the local sports community. He has vowed to continue to help with coaching ELCO girls’ basketball in the winter, ELCO baseball in the spring, and Myerstown American Legion baseball in the summer.

In the past, Fulk has also helped coach kickers in the ELCO football program, served as an assistant baseball coach at Cedar Crest, and helped coach both boys’ basketball and boys’ soccer at ELCO. He truly is a man of every season, for all the right reasons.

“I’ve always been very interested in sports,” Fulk said. “My dad (Bill) was a tremendous athlete, and I think he set the tone for my brother (Keith) and I. My brother was an all-state (soccer) player, and I learned a lot from him. It was kind of always there.

“I love being around all the kids and I love the competition. There are so many life lessons and so many opportunities to teach. You don’t get into coach without impacting players being one of your goals. Everyone is different, and obviously you’re not going to reach everyone. I hope I made an impact on them and there were kids who impacted me.”

Quite unintentionally, Fulk became involved with coaching in 1995, while in his mid-20s. He didn’t seek it out, coaching found him.

“When Paul Kline was the girls’ soccer coach at ELCO, my brother was coaching at the University of Tampa,” he said. “Paul said, ‘Hey, we’re going to a camp to see your brother.’ I went along and started coaching. The next thing you know you’re a volunteer assistant. The next thing you know you’re a varsity assistant. And then the next thing you know you’re a head coach.

“I would say I’m an old-school coach, almost to a fault. I’ve tried to mellow over the years. I was fiery there at the beginning, but I have definitely changed over my course of coaching.”

Right now, Fulk, who has earned a living as a CNC operator at Kountry Kraft Custom Cabinetry in Newmanstown for the past 33 years, has a hard time envisioning the circumstances that would get him to be a head coach again.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I could see myself being a co-head coach if I could find the right person. There are certain things I wouldn’t want to do. I’m not very good at some of the aspects of head coaching. I’d say probably not.

“I’m not sure if it’s (sad). I’m hoping some of my former assistant coaches will be head coaches. I don’t know if (never being a head coach again) is a bad thing.”