The 2020-21 academic year marks Matt Sparks' eighth season as head coach of the track & field programs at Colorado School of Mines.
During his tenure at Mines, Sparks has been named USTFCCCA South Central Region Men's Indoor Coach of the Year (2017-18), RMAC Men's Outdoor Coach of the Year three times and RMAC Men's Indoor Coach of the Year twice. Under Sparks' guidance, 48 Orediggers have earned a combined 87 All-America honors between the indoor and outdoor seasons. He has won two RMAC Men's Indoor Track & Field titles and two RMAC Men's Outdoor Track & Field Championships while coaching one individual National Champion. Sparks also coached the 2019-20 USTFCCCA National Field Athlete of the Year in Connor McLean.
The 2019-20 season was heartbreaking due to the cancellation of the NCAA Championships and the outdoor season at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to the announcement, Sparks and the Oredigger men had arrived at the championship site ranked #2 in the nation with 15th entries into the national meet along with two women set to compete for national gold. After the championships were canceled, 15 individuals earned USTFCCCA All-America status on the merits of qualifying for the NCAA Championships. At the conference meet, Sparks led the men and women to runner-up finishes which matched the best finish for the women in program history. In total, Mines' men and women broke four program records and added 57 total entries into the Oredigger indoor record book. The highlight of the year was Connor McLean who dominated the heptathlon and pole vault events. He shattered the program's heptathlon record with the fifth-best score in NCAA Division II history on his way to USTFCCCA National Field Athlete of the Year honors. Additionally, Sparks' assistant and Head Cross Country Coach Chris Siemers was named the USTFCCCA National Assistant Coach of the year for his work with the distance runners.
Overall, Sparks led the Orediggers to great success in the 2018-19 indoor and outdoor seasons. Mines' men took silver and the women finished fifth at the RMAC Indoor Championships. Twelve individuals advanced to the NCAA Indoor Championships where the men finished #12 in the nation and the women #27 while taking home a combined 13 All-America awards. Additionally, the Orediggers claimed 17 all-region nods for the indoor season. The outdoor season saw Mines' men win the RMAC Outdoor crown for a second straight season and the women took a best-ever silver-medal finish. Gina Coleman was named RMAC Women's Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year and Field Women's Athlete of the Meet. Luke Julian was named RMAC Men's Outdoor Freshman of the Year and Sparks was named the RMAC Men's Coach of the Year. Prior to the national championships, the Orediggers claimed 19 All-Region honors which led to 18 selections in 19 events at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Mines' men finished #28 in the nation in outdoors and the women finished #53 as the Orediggers brought home 10-total All-America awards. Additionally, Megan Wenham and Ben Schndeiderman earned the NCAA's Elite 90 award - marking the first time in the accolade's history that both winners came from the same school.
The 2017-18 season was arguably the most successful season in program history. Sparks helped the Oredigger men complete the RMAC Triple Crown with RMAC titles in the indoor and outdoor seasons to go along with the Orediggers' men's crown in cross country. Sparks also helped Mines' women to their highest finish in program history at the RMAC Outdoor Championships as the ladies took third. He guided the Oredigger men all the way up to No. 1 in the indoor national rankings and No. 3 in the outdoor rankings. Sparks also coached Mines' women into the nation's top-25 in the outdoor rankings. Sparks' expertise helped the Oredigger men finish 11th at the NCAA Indoor Championships with the women placing 32nd. In the outdoor season, Sparks led the men to a 10th-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships as the women closed the season 46th in the nation. Connor McLean was named RMAC Indoor Field Athlete of the Year and Gina Coleman was named RMAC Women's Outdoor Freshman of the Year. Triston Sisneros was named RMAC Athlete of the Meet at the outdoor championships and Sparks took home indoor and outdoor coach of the year honors.
In the 2016-17 season the Orediggers notched nine all-America honors and again appeared in the USTFCCCA National Top 25 rankings.
That followed up the 2015-16 season as Sparks oversaw 27 USTFCCCA All-Region and 17 All-American honorees while leading the men’s indoor track & field team to the first conference championship in program history. A grand total of 14 different school records were broken this past season. In addition to the conference championship, the men finished second at the outdoor RMAC Championships while the women placed seventh and sixth, respectfully, between the indoor and outdoor season. The men’s program spent the entire indoor season ranked in the USTFCCCA national rankings as they reached as high as #3 in the nation. While during the outdoor season they were ranked 10 of the 11 weeks and reached as high as #6.
Sparks was named the RMAC Indoor Track & Field Coach of the Year in the 2015-16 season while he guided Triston Sisneros to RMAC Indoor & Outdoor Freshman of the Year, and RMAC Co-Athlete of the Meet honors at the outdoor championships. Sparks oversaw 25 USTFCCCA All-Region honorees, 10 RMAC Athletes of the Week and five All-Americans as well as multiple school records in his first season at the helm.
In the 2014-15 campaign, the Mines men and women ranked fourth and eighth, respectively, at the conference indoor races and closed second and ninth at the outdoor championships. Sparks became the program's initial RMAC Men’s Outdoor Coach of the Year recipient since the conference began conferring the honor in 1992. Under Sparks', the Orediggers ranked in the men’s top-25 of the USTFCCCA the last three weeks of the indoor season and were inside the top-20 all nine weeks during outdoors, reaching an all-time high of No. 5 in week four. Mines placed 14th at the NCAA meet for the second year in a row, ending two shy of the program-best score set in 2008 with a three-day, 18.00-point total.
A veteran of the coaching ranks in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, Sparks came to Golden following a three-year stint as the head track and field coach at Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste Marie, Mich.
There, he guided both programs to their highest national finishes in school history during the 2012 season. The Laker men finished 18th during the indoor season and 22nd during the outdoor season, while the women ranked 23rd in outdoors.
The 2012 GLIAC Women's Outdoor Coach of the Year, Sparks coached one national champion and 12 NCAA All-Americans during his time at LSSU, including two athletes that competed at the USATF Junior National Championships in 2013.
His programs registered more than 50 new school records and won the 2013 Academic Excellence Award, which goes to the team with the highest grade point average each year at Lake Superior State. Additionally, Sparks initiated and led fundraising efforts for the LSSU track and field and cross country programs that totaled more than $80,000.
Prior to being named head coach at LSSU, Sparks was an assistant at Chadron State College in Chadron, Neb. during the 2009-10 season. He coached eight RMAC champions in the combined events, sprints, hurdles and relays as well as four qualifiers to the 2010 NCAA Division II Championships, including one eventual All-American from the quartet.
He was an assistant coach at fellow RMAC member Western State from 2007-09 where he directed six NCAA qualifiers and one All-American. He assisted in leading the men's program to a seventh-place finish at the NCAA Division II Indoor Championships in 2009.
A native of Gunnison, Sparks was a 10-time All-American during his collegiate career at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, Calif. He claimed the 2006 NAIA 110-meter high hurdles national championship during the outdoor season and the 2007 60-meter high hurdles indoor title. He set the NAIA 60-meter high hurdles national record (since broken) and was a member of four NAIA national champion squads, of which he captained three.
Sparks received his B.A. in English from Azusa Pacific in 2007 and is currently working on a master's degree in sports management from Chadron State.
He and his wife, Jocelyn, reside in Arvada.
