Don Decker enters his eighth season as New Mexico State’s director of sports performance.
A highly respected strength and conditioning coach, Decker has over 30 years of experience at the college level. In 2014, Decker was elected to serve as a member of the Board of Directors of the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association (CSCCa) at the organization’s 14th annual national conference.
Decker was recently part of a group of strength and conditioning coaches that published protocols to help prevent common exertional injuries, including exertional heat illness (EHI), exertional rhabdomyolysis (ER) and cardiorespiratory failure after transitional periods. The paper, entitled “CSCCa and NSCA Joint Consensus Guidelines for Transition Periods: Safe Return to Training Following Inactivity,” was published in the Strength and Conditioning Journal's June 2019 issue and represents the first collaboration between the CSCCa and NSCA since both organizations were formed.
Prior to arriving at NM State, Decker spent four years (2008-11) at Ole Miss as the head football strength and conditioning coach. He was named the 2010 Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year by the Professional Football Strength and Conditioning Coaches Society.
Before heading to Oxford, Miss., Decker was at Arkansas for 15 seasons, including the last 10 as the head strength and conditioning coach. He served as assistant strength and conditioning coach for five years before his promotion.
In 2004, Decker earned the designation of master level strength coach by the CSCCa. He is one of just 140 strength and conditioning coaches in the world to earn that honor.
While football was his primary responsibility in Fayetteville, Ark., Decker oversaw strength and conditioning for all men’s sports. He was in charge of the basketball team's weight training for eight years and also worked with the baseball program.
During his tenure with the Razorbacks, Decker went to the Final Four twice, including in 1994 when the Hogs won the national championship. He also worked with the 1995, 2002 and 2006 football squads that won the SEC Western Division title.
In his first year as head strength and conditioning coach in 1998, the Razorbacks won a share of the SEC Western Division and played in the Citrus Bowl. It would be the first of eight bowl games under Decker’s watch. He also worked with the Razorback baseball team that won the SEC regular-season crown in 1999.
Decker arrived at Arkansas from Kent State, where he was head strength coach for football during the 1991 and 1992 seasons. Before going to Kent Sate, he was a graduate assistant at Arkansas and worked with the 1989 football Razorbacks, who won the Southwest Conference crown and played in the Cotton Bowl.
He earned his master’s degree in exercise science from Arkansas in 1991 before leaving for Kent State.
Decker played collegiate football at Evangel University, where he ws an all-district, all-conference and an All-American at quarterback. He received his bachelor's degree in physical education from Evangel in 1988.
Decker and his wife, Stacey, have been married for 25-plus years.
