Growing up in Los Angeles, Shea Decker-Jacoby admits going as far away from home as Brandeis University was an unforeseen choice by her and her sister Katie, who is six months younger. Even younger brother Sean admits that Brandeis was not originally on his radar but like Shea, he is glad he made the choice to be a student-athlete there.
“I went on college tours around New York City and Boston, visiting Brandeis in the summer of 2014. I decided to apply early decision in October and Katie applied regular decision. Our parents wanted to know what drew us to the cold since we grew up with sunshine and palm trees,” Shea laughed. “Katie and I both wanted to be in New York or New England. We took the commuter train from downtown Boston to visit the campus just after the new volleyball coach (Alesia Vaccari, now Bennett) was hired. It was summer and no one was around. I remember we even got lost in Gosman (Brandeis’ athletic center). I was her first recruit on campus, and I asked her what her plan was for the program. I wanted to be a part of her first class and saw it as a unique opportunity to help build the program under a new coach.”
Sean remembered his sophomore year in high school when nearby pitcher Hunter Greene was selected second in the 2017 Major League Baseball draft by the Cincinnati Reds (where he is currently in the starting rotation and struck out 16 batters combined in his first two starts in 2025). “I told myself if that was the standard, then I was several big jumps down from that. I hadn’t talked to a coach when I attended Shea and Katie’s graduation but I got introduced to Coach Mo (then Brandeis pitching coach Chris Morris). He was great and answered all of my questions,” Sean recalled. “He saw me again at a showcase in Sacramento. I did talk with several coaches but went back to Brandeis for a formal conversation with (Brandeis head baseball) coach (Derek) Carlson and Mo. I was comfortable with the school and knew a lot about it. I wanted to be an engineer so that was the only drawback since Brandeis doesn’t have engineering, but it has physics. I loved the physics department and it confirmed I made the right choice.”
Both their parents are lawyers and Shea was on a pre-law track at Brandeis, but an incredible finish to her career individually and as a team made her realize her true passion was volleyball. She played in the best match of her career with 18 kills and a .432 hitting percentage to lead the Judges to an upset win over Case Western Reserve at the UAA Volleyball Championship and the team followed the next day by upending NYU in a thrilling match to earn their highest UAA finish since 2008.
“I called my dad and told him I didn’t want to go to law school. He was fine with it and asked me what I wanted to do. I said I didn’t know, but that I loved volleyball. It was a gratifying feeling to have an impact on something bigger than myself and finding a role I was uniquely equipped to do,” explained Shea, who did not find coaching appealing at the time and went to NYU to earn her master’s degree in sports business and management. “While I was there, COVID hit and everything went online. I had a remote internship selling signage for a Major League Soccer team, but I am so competitive. I want to contribute to wins and that was too far removed from that.”
To earn some extra money, she got involved with the NYC Juniors Volleyball Club. “I coached 15’s, which is essentially high school first year girls and I loved every minute of it. I knew coaching was something I could be good at. If I can handle New York City 15-year-old girls, I figured I could handle anyone,” she joked. “Six months in, I called Alesia and she had been waiting for me to realize I wanted to coach.”
While Shea was pursuing her master’s and passion for volleyball, Sean found a way to combine his love of physics and baseball at Brandeis. “In my junior year I was enjoying physics, but it was kicking my butt. I started to question if majoring in physics at Brandeis was for me and whether that big and expensive decision was the right one,” Sean acknowledged. “Then in my senior year I took a continuum dynamics class taught by a professor who specializes in oceanography and was a baseball fan. We had to do a research project, and I was the only one not talking about oceanography so I knew I had to knock it out of the park. I researched pitch trajectory around liquid dynamics and aerodynamics. I sensed it would be very complicated, but my professor supported my idea and gave me some material to read up on.”
Sean committed to the project, where he shared the findings on published papers that developed a two-dimensional model along with other research into the pitch movement effected by baseball seams and pitch spin. Then, the following semester I took a programing course where I attempted to recreate a simplified version of this model,” he explained. “I had so much fun. I knew I wanted to get into baseball and that I had a unique background. I didn’t know if anyone would be interested but I am not afraid of failure so I applied to all kinds of internships to gain some industry experience.”
It would turn out that both siblings would get unexpected opportunities that they made the most out of. Through Bennett’s connection to the then George Mason University head volleyball coach Aylene Ilkson (a college teammate at Springfield College who recently retired from coaching), Shea became a volunteer assistant. “Aylene asked me what I wanted to do and I said that I’d do any work. She let me do a whole lot of stuff. I was thrown into the deep end with travel and food, but it was coding in VolleyStation that led me to getting my first paid job at Michigan State the next year,” she recounted. “I found a skill that is marketable. My initial draw into this field was just not giving up volleyball and it grew into having great relationships with 18-to-22-year-olds, helping them get through college. A lot of these women are away from their parents for a long stretch for the first time. They are majoring in things like physics, aerodynamics, and nursing. I help guide them and set them up for the real world after college.”
Shea spent three years as a performance analyst at Michigan State under the leadership of head coach Leah Johnson, who was a new hire. “I was hired as she started building the program and putting in things that did not exist before she got there. She gave me a lot of autonomy and gave me the space to get good really fast working for a female coach, something I am adamant about doing,” she explained. Shea was hired as an assistant volleyball coach at Dartmouth College of the Ivy League in January, working for another head women’s coach, Kevin Maureen Campbell. Shea also worked as a support analyst for the U.S. Women’s National Team at the 2024 Paris Olympics and annually with the Volleyball Nations League (VNL).
Meanwhile, Sean accepted an unpaid job for a college summer wood bat league after graduating. “I figured I would just do that for the summer while I was looking for something full time. Then I received an email from the MLB commissioner’s office about a position I honestly forgot I applied for,” he laughed. “I went through the entire interview process thinking I wasn’t going to get the job but would get valuable experience about interviewing to get into pro baseball.”
Instead, he would get a phone call that changed the trajectory of his career… and he missed it. “I remember it like it was yesterday. I was at practice and I missed a call from the person who interviewed me (my future boss). I texted him back letting him know I was at practice and he didn’t respond at first,” Sean recollected. “I was in the dining hall with my teammates and they could see me stressing. He called back and I sprinted outside to take the call this time. It took a minute as he was slow playing it but he then told me I got the internship. I threw my hands up outside the dining hall and my teammates erupted in cheers. I got really lucky. I didn’t know anyone in baseball, but I was in the right place at the right time.”
Shea believes Sean is downplaying the truth by saying he was lucky. “He was able to use his math and physics background and relate it to baseball. He talked about his school projects in his interviews,” she said. “I had the freedom to do fun research that I wanted to do to create the perfect environment for me to have relevant conversations with people in baseball,” Sean stated.
His job in the commissioner’s office was supposed to be a summer position only, but it was extended with a different group within the office, turning it into a nine-month job. “I thought I knew a lot about pro baseball and within two weeks of starting there, I felt like I knew nothing,” he admitted. “There are so many small intricacies of the industry that so many different people are responsible for. I got to meet a lot of people and talk a lot about baseball.”
Sean looked for jobs in pro baseball and got a call back from the Tampa Bay Rays organization where he accepted a position as an operations intern in advance scouting. “It looks like an amazing learning experience. This was my number one choice and I am thankful it happened. I moved 2½ months ago and of course the season just started. I am addicted to this sport and working in it,” he expressed.
“I think being in Division III and especially the UAA prepares us to bring so many different aspects to high-level sports. In volleyball, there is only so much you can do when you are 5’8” and the person on the other side of the net is 6’7”. It is a far more level playing field in Division III. You have to find ways to score with more information that is technically supporting you. There are a lot of smart non-power conference graduates working in MLB and other major leagues, leading the charge in being coaches and teaching dynamics,” Shea explained. “We are using our education to think about sports and player development in a different way. That wasn’t what I was thinking about before college. I was thinking you had to play Division I to get those opportunities. But now working in the industry going on five years, I can see how no matter the level you play at if you pursue your passion with ambition and continuously working on solutions, you can compete with anyone.”