Basic HTML Version
2013 Cross Country Media Guide
13 MVC Team Championships
12 All-Americans
9
9
Coach Sparks At A Glance:
• Led the Saluki men’s cross country team to four MVC
titles (2004, 2007, 2008, 2012)
• Guided the Saluki women cross country team to back-
to-back MVC runner-up finishes
• Coached 51 MVC Champions
• Coached 125 All-MVC performers
• Five MVC Most Valuable Track Athletes
• Four MVC Cross Country Athletes of the Year
• Coached 113 MVC Scholar-Athletes
• Coached 10 NCAA Finals Qualifiers
• Has qualified an SIU athlete in every distance event for
the NCAA Regional meet
• Two Cross Country All-Americans (Jeff Schirmer, 2008-
09) and two outdoor track second-team All-Americans
(Schirmer and Dahleen)
• Coached ten USATF Junior All-Americans
• Coached nine cross country teams that have earned
Academic All-American status. His 2003 women’s squad
(3.61) and his 2010 men’s squad (3.6) had the second-
highest GPAs in the nation
• Coached one USATF Junior National Champion, a
World Junior competitor and a Pan Am Junior competitor
On the track, Sparks has had similar success
with his distance runners -- who have contributed
to some of the best Saluki track and field teams in
school history. In 12 seasons Sparks has coached
51 MVC champions, 125 All-MVC performers, five
MVC Most Valuable Track Athletes and five NCAA
finals qualifiers. The Saluki men captured their first
championship in 20 years indoors in 2012, due
in large part to Sparks’ MVC champion distance
medley relay team and the individual efforts of
five-time MVC champion Zach Dahleen.
In addition to the athletic accomplishments
his runners have achieved, Sparks has led one of
the most successful academic programs at SIU
and in the MVC. His cross country teams have
consistently achieved top-20 GPAs nationally and
his student-athletes have earned numerous awards
for their academic efforts. From 2002-09, Sparks’
women’s teams achieved Academic All-America
status, with the 2003 squad notching the second-
highest GPA (3.61) in the country. In 2010, his
men’s team returned the favor with the second-
highest GPA nationally at 3.60.
Across both track and cross country, Sparks
has accumulated 113 total MVC Scholar-Athletes
honorees. In fact, he owns 66 of SIU’s 126
(52.4 percent) track and field Scholar-Athletes
accumulated during his time in Carbondale
(2002-present). In addition, every MVC Elite 18
award that SIU track and field has earned have all
been Sparks distance runners.
Sparks graduated from IU in 1997 with an
education degree in general science and biology,
and he completed his master’s in applied sports
science at IU in 1999.
Sparks and his wife, Emily, reside in Carbondale
with their son, Samuel, and daughter, Eliza.
Head Coach Matt Sparks
Head Coach Matt Sparks