Jocelyn Sparks completed her 12th season as assistant coach of the Colorado School of Mines track and field programs in 2024-25, having built one of the nation's best pole vaulting programs in Golden.
A four-time USTFCCCA Regional Assistant Coach of the Year, Sparks has developed one of the nation's best overall event groups with the Oredigger pole vaulters. Sparks has coached 26 all-Americans since 2016, including 2018 outdoor national champion Jake Pinkston and 2023 indoor national champion Hannah Miller.
In 2025, Hunter Potrykus and Hayley Rayburn found the podium for the Orediggers as Rayburn was the NCAA women's indoor bronze medalist and Potrykus claimed fourth in the men's indoor competition. Dale Thompson was a two-season NCAA qualifier, as well, and both Rayburn (indoor) and Thompson (outdoor) won RMAC championships. The women's pole vault squad was once again instrumental in helping Mines earn a conference team title threepeat, scoring a combined 26.5 team points at the RMAC Indoor Championships.
The 2024 season saw Sparks again win regional assistant coach of the year honors after a record-shattering season. Both Miller and Hunter Potrykus became the RMAC's all-time recordholders in the pole vault, and Mines qualified a combined nine vaulters to NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships, including a national-best and program-record six outdoors. Miller was the NCAA silver medalist indoor and placed fourth outdoors, while Potrykus finished on the podium in seventh outdoors. The vault group was key to Mines capturing three of the four RMAC team titles in 2024, sweeping the podium three times out of four opportunities, winning all four gold medals and 11 of 12 total medals; Mines vaulters scored an incredible 124.5 team points combined between the RMAC indoor and outdoor meets.
In 2023, Miller won the Orediggers' first-ever women's field national championship when she won the indoor title in Virginia Beach; she would go on to be the runner-up outdoors and earn Colorado Sportswoman of the Year honors for collegiate track & field. Mines vaulters again played a critical role in conference success, as well, with double podium sweeps indoors helping Mines' women win their first-ever RMAC team title.
Highlights for Sparks from the 2022 campaign included Hannah Miller, Avery Herbold and Hunter Potrykus all punching their respective tickets to the national meet. Miller was a two-time USTFCCCA First-Team All-American thanks to a sixth-place finish at the indoor championships and a seventh-place finish at the outdoor championships. Miller also shattered her own program record and the facility record at Stermole Track.
While COVID-19 adversity carried into the 2020-21 campaign, Sparks continued to help her pole vaulting group find national success. During the indoor season, true freshman Hunter Potrykus became the third Oredigger to ever surpass 5.00 meters as he advanced to his first-ever NCAA Championships. Hannah Miller punched her ticket to the indoor championships for the women as well and finished ninth in the nation. The outdoor season saw the return and swan song for Mines all-timer Connor McLean who not only reached the podium in the decathlon, but also finished sixth in the nation in the pole vault after breaking his own program record and the Stermole Track record at the Mines Friday Last Chance. Hannah Miller was in the field again for the women and tied for fourth in the nation after breaking her own program record on multiple occasions during the regular season. Additionally, at the conference level, Sparks' vaulters claimed three of the top six spots on the men's side thanks to McLean's gold, Potrykus' silver and Twombly's sixth-place finish. The women proved even more dominant by grabbing five of the top eight positions in the league led by Miller's gold and Avery Herbold's silver with Gabbi Varela taking fifth while Ava Kowalski and Lauren Kelly tied for seventh.
Despite an unprecedented 2020 indoor season, Sparks still guided the Oredigger pole vaulters to elite status. Connor McLean, Jake Pinkston and Hannah Miller all earned spots in the field at the NCAA Championships, Miller doing so as a true freshman. Additionally, Zach Clark and Brandon Hinkle provisionally qualified for the national meet. While the championships and outdoor season were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Connor McLean still earned USTFCCCA National Field Athlete of the Year thanks, in part, to Sparks' coaching. At the conference level, Miller claimed silver and Gabby Griner took fourth for a pair of all-conference nods on the women's side. For the men, Pinkston grabbed gold and Twombly claimed sixth for two more all-conference awards. Additionally, McLean, Miller and Pinkston all brought home USTFCCCA All-America honors. Furthermore, Miller shattered the program's women's indoor pole vault record in the first appearance of her collegiate career.
The 2019 season saw Connor McLean take silver at both the indoor and outdoor RMAC Championships. McLean also qualified for both the indoor and outdoor NCAA Championships. Under Sparks' guidance he took #4 in the nation at the indoor championships, earning his third-career All-America award as a pole vaulter. Additionally, Sparks' vaulters added six marks to the Orediggers' indoor and outdoor record books including McLean matching his standing program indoor record of 5.26 meters.
In 2018, Sparks coached Jake Pinkston to gold in the pole vault at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. It marked Mines' first individual national title since 2011 as Pinkston matched his own school record on the way to victory. Sparks was also named USTFCCCA South Central Region Men's Assistant Coach of the Year in the 2017-18 indoor season as Connor McLean vaulted his way to silver at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
In 2017, Mines dominated the point-scoring in the RMAC men's pole vault as freshmen Jake Pinkston and Darin Meeker combined for 11 team points at RMAC Indoors; at the outdoor meet, Mines scored four men as Pinkston won gold and Meeker, Brandon Hinkle, and Zach Clark scored to combine for 19 team points. Pinkston was named the RMAC Freshman of the Year for the outdoor season as he set the program record in the pole vault, and went on to earn Second-Team All-America honors at NCAA Championships. Pinkston was the third Oredigger under Sparks to finish as an all-American after Connor McLean (2016 indoor) and Ben Timmer (2015 indoor). She also has worked with Mines' multi-eventers Triston Sisneros and Austin Smith, who have four combined all-America finishes in the NCAA heptathlon and decathlon.
Sparks had previously served as the Horizontal Jumps and Pole Vault Coach at Lake Superior State University from 2012 to 2013. She also coached at Jenison High School in 2012. While on the Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. campus, Sparks oversaw four school records and coached three Lakers to NCAA qualifying marks, including two All-American efforts.
Originally from Palatine, Ill., Sparks was an eight-time All-American in the pole vault for perennial track and field power Grand Valley State University, leading the Lakers to four NCAA team championships during her career. She set the program indoor pentathlon record in 2009 before focusing exclusively on pole vault. As a senior in 2011-12, Sparks placed third in the pole vault at the indoor national meet and was runner-up at outdoor nationals, clearing 12-7.5 (3.85 meters).
Sparks graduated from GVSU with a Bachelor of Science in exercise science in 2012.
She and her husband, Matt, reside in Arvada.
