It’ll be very difficult for Trinity (Conn.) coach Bill Decker to top the 2008 season. After going 45-1, setting a new Division III record for consecutive wins to start a season and winning the program’s first national championship, Decker has completed what will likely be the signature season in his career.

But the season that defines Coach Decker for me is a 5-3 football campaign in 1999.

In addition to his baseball duties, Decker once coached defense under long time Trinity football head coach Don Miller. Miller led the Bantams’ football program for 32 years, won 177 games and eventually had the field co-named after him. Decker, the son of a high school football coach himself, was the quiet leader of a solid defense that complemented Miller’s ground game. But the Bantams sagged to a 2-6 record in 1998 after which Miller retired.

The 1999 roster was full of seniors who might have been lost in a transition year where a program waits for the old guard to cycle out as the new guard to moves in. To help prevent that, Decker added a little more responsibility to his plate and became the head coach for football, too.

As a student journalist, I covered the team and spoke with Decker throughout the year. Off the field he was gracious, patient and helpful to a nervous kid who had never interviewed a head football coach on radio before. On the field, he got maximum talent out of his team and rode his solid defense to a 5-3 record.

That 1999 season was Decker’s only one as the head football coach. In the Bantams’ football media guide, his name is perched between Miller and Chuck Priore, who won three NESCAC titles and ran off an impressive 30-game winning streak of his own. Only his players and a few people around the program will appreciate what Decker did in that one season.

And now that he has added a national championship to his successful coaching career, I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to talk to him about this special run. Click here to listen to the Bill Decker interview.

audio · Bantams · championship · Gordon Mann · interview · perfect season · Trinity (Conn.) · Walnut and Bronze