All Sooners

OU Softball: Oklahoma Assistant Hired by Auburn

After helping her alma mater win a third straight national title, former Sooner and 2023 first base coach Hannah Sparks is headed back to her home state.

John E. Hoover

John E. Hoover / AllSooners

By Auburn Media Relations

Patty Gasso needs a new first base coach.

Fresh off helping Oklahoma to its third consecutive national championship, Hannah Sparks has joined the Auburn softball staff as an assistant coach, head coach Mickey Dean announced Monday.

"We're excited to welcome Hannah to our staff," Dean said. "Hannah will work with our catchers as well as assist with our infielders. She brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from her time as a player and coach at Oklahoma."

Sparks served as the volunteer assistant coach at her alma mater during the 2023 season, during which the Sooner staff was honored as the National Fastpitch Coaching Association Division I Staff of the Year. Sparks coached first base for the Sooners.

Sparks helped the Sooners to a 61-1 record, the best winning percentage in NCAA Division I softball history and Big 12 regular season and tournament titles.

Oklahoma led the country in multiple categories, including earned run average (0.96), batting average (.367) and fielding percentage (.988). The Sooners' title run included a 53-game win streak, which set the NCAA record, 35 shutouts, 29 wins by run rule and a 28-0 record versus ranked opponents to set program records.

A nation-leading five Sooners were named NFCA First Team All-Americans during Sparks' stint while eight student-athletes earned All-Big 12 accolades.

Prior to returning to Oklahoma, Sparks spent three seasons as the hitting and catching coach and recruiting coordinator at Pearl River Community College in Poplarville, MS. During the 2021 season, PRCC slugged 43 home runs and held a team batting average of .335 under Sparks.

Sparks began her coaching career as a graduate assistant at Lee University in Cleveland, TN.

A 2018 graduate of Oklahoma, Sparks was a national champion with the Sooners as a catcher in 2017. The Thomasville, AL, native made over 70 appearances at Oklahoma after transferring from Northwest Florida State College where she was an All-American at the NFCAA Division I level. She helped Northwest Florida State to the 2016 Panhandle Conference championship.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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