Tag: Hannah Sparks

Auburn Softball hires Hannah Sparks as assistant coach

Sparks won two national championships at Oklahoma, one as a player and another as an assistant coach.

Auburn has announced the addition of [autotag]Hannah Sparks[/autotag] to its coaching staff. Sparks spent last season as a volunteer assistant coach with the national champion Oklahoma Sooners.

“We’re excited to welcome Hannah to our staff,” head coach [autotag]Mickey Dean[/autotag] said of the hiring. “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.”

The Thomasville, Alabama native won a national championship with the Sooners as a catcher in 2017. After graduating the next year, Sparks immediately launched her coaching career.

She spent three seasons as a hitting and catching coach and recruiting coordinator at Pearl River Community College in Mississippi and as a graduate assistant at Lee University in Tennessee prior to returning to Oklahoma.

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Oklahoma Sooners coaching staff receives big honor

The accolades for the Oklahoma Sooners softball team continue to pour in.

The accolades for the Oklahoma Sooners softball team continue to pour in after a historic season.

Grace Lyons (Softball America) and Jayda Coleman (D1Softball) earned defensive player of the year awards, and Jordy Bahl was recognized as D1Softball’s pitcher of the year, but the coaching staff was recognized as well.

They were named D1 National Coaching Staff of the Year by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association.

The staff consists of head coach Patty Gasso, associate head coach Jennifer Rocha, assistant coach JT Gasso and volunteer assistant Hannah Sparks.

Under the guidance of head coach Patty Gasso, along with associate head coach Jennifer Rocha, assistant coach JT Gasso and volunteer assistant Hannah Sparks, the Sooners (61-1) became just the second team to win three consecutive national titles (UCLA 1988-90) and finished 2023 with a program and NCAA Division I-record 53-game winning streak. They have won five of the last seven national championships and seven overall. Their .984 winning percentage also eclipsed UCLA’s Division I record of .964 (54-2), which stood since 1992. – NFCA

They helped lead the program to its third straight and seventh overall national title in 2023.

According to soonersports.com, this marks the second straight and sixth overall honor for Gasso and her staff. They also received the award in 2000, 2013, 2016, 2017, and 2022.

They also claimed the NFCA’s regional honor for the 15th time in Gasso’s 29 years at the helm.

This comes after a record-breaking season that saw the Sooners go 61-1 and end the year on a 53-game winning streak. The dominant run included a nation-best and program-record 35 shutouts, 29 wins by run rule, and a 28-0 record versus ranked opponents.

It also resulted in the best win percentage in NCAA Division I softball history and Big 12 regular season and tournament titles.

They also led the country in a number of categories, including ERA, batting average, home runs per game, runs per game, and fielding percentage.

This comes after Gasso was named the Big 12 conference’s Co-Coach of the Year with Baylor Bears coach Glenn Moore.

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