Scott Decker: Big 8 Coach of the Year

After 30 years of coaching the Sierra College Women's Aquatics program, Scott Decker is heading into retirement. Finishing out his final Swimming and Diving season, he captures another Big 8 Conference Championship and is named Big 8 Coach of the Year, a title he is familiar with.

Taking a look back over the past 30 years, Scott Decker has had a very successful swim program. Throughout his time with the Women's Swimming and Diving team, Decker has won 15 Conference titles. His program has finished in the Top 7 for the last 21 years straight at the State Championship Swim & Dive Meet– with hopes to do it again for a 22nd time in his last year. In those 21 years, the Wolverines have finished in the Top 3 three times and have been the State Runner-up ten times. In 2017, Scott Decker and the Wolverines won the State Championship title. He has coached over 225 All-Americans since 1999 in Swimming and Diving. He has also had multiple athletes continue their academic and athletic careers at various four-year institutions including San Jose State University, UC Santa Barbara, and CSU Bakersfield. The swimming and diving program has stuck to the title of "Student-Athlete" and taken care of business in the pool and the classroom, receiving one Team Scholar Award and numerous nominations. Throughout the years, the program has seen every school record broken during Decker's tenure –all of which have been broken multiple times. 

In addition to coaching Swimming and Diving, Scott Decker has also been the Head Coach of the Women's Water Polo team. Starting the program in 1994, Scott Decker has been the only head coach for the water polo team for the past 30 years. Within his years of coaching water polo at Sierra College, he has recorded 546 wins, 284 losses, and 3 ties.  He has led his team to 15 Conference Titles and 8 Northern California Regional Championship titles. Decker has taken the Wolverines to appear in the State Championship Tournament 22 times, making the program have the 2nd most appearances in the State Championship tournament out of all the colleges in the CCCAA. Along with the 2nd most appearances, he was the first coach from Northern California to make the State Championship Final twice in 2017 and 2018. In 2018, his state championship game appearance resulted in the first coach from Northern California to win the State Championship title. He has coached 78 All-Americans as well as the 2018 State Player of the Year, Danielle Brown. While his teams have taken care of business in the pool, three of his teams have also been honored with the Team Scholar Award and a few have been nominated. Decker has also had numerous athletes continue their academic and athletic careers at multiple four-year institutions, including top schools like the University of Hawaii, Indiana University, and UC Davis. 

In his final weeks as the Head Coach of the Sierra College Women's Aquatics program, Scott Decker looks back on the continued success of his athletes over the years and looks forward to seeing how his final Swim and Dive athletes do at the State Championships at the end of the month. Decker's contributions and accomplishments to the Sierra College Aquatics program will remain as one of the biggest legacies at Sierra College.