"After having been an assistant with the 2007 Xplosion team, I'm extremely excited about the challenges of the upcoming 2008 campaign," Sparks said. "Our hope is that we can retain a core nucleolus from last year's team, advance to and win the CIFL championship. We're anxious to begin our new season in this expanding league which will provide more challenges and hopefully more excitement for the great fans here in Kalamazoo. We'd like to challenge our fans to continue to support us at Wings Stadium and help us become the showcase franchise of the CIFL."

Sparks played college football at Division III Hope College in Holland, Michigan and then went on to play a couple of seasons for the Kalamazoo Tornadoes, a local semi-pro football team. In 1996, he went overseas to Germany where he was the head coach and also played defense on an American football team known as the Landsburg Express. The team won the League title that season.

He was the head coach at Bellevue High School in Belleview, Michigan from 1994-2000. During that time, he coached the man who is now the owner of the Kalamazoo Xplosion, Mike Johnson.

Sparks has been the defensive coordinator at Division III Olivet College the past three seasons and has been an assistant coach at the school for a total of seven years.

He hopes to have his coaching staff in place in the next 4-6 weeks. The first open player tryout is scheduled for Sunday, December 9.

Currently, there are no players under contract with the team for the 2008 season.