SOUTHFIELD >> Fifteen years ago, Jim Sparks was manning the sidelines at the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association All-Star Game.

A decade-and-a-half later, Sparks was walking those same parameters at the All-Star game in Southfield. Not as a coach, but rather an honoree.

The night before this year’s event, Sparks, a longtime head coach at Clawson now leading Novi’s program, was inducted into the MHSFCA Hall of Fame on June 20 as part of the Class of 2025.

In a word, Sparks called it humbling.

“I’ve been in the Association and coaching for so long, seeing all the guys before me go into the Hall of Fame,” Sparks said. “When I was a young guy, I’d never even thought that would be imaginable. To have the opportunity to be honored like that by the people I respect so much, words can’t even describe what that meant.”

As a former president of the MHSFCA, Sparks has known for quite some time that he would be inducted. The unorthodox part of his story comes in how the Clawson native and alumni began his journey in the first place. It started with the Clawson Mavericks youth program back in 1988 when he was just about 20 years old.

“I didn’t play football in high school so I started in youth football with Ralph Haney,” Sparks said. “He let me coach with him, and that was my first experience and I’ve coached every day since then. Coach (Richard) Moore from Clawson, who’s a Hall of Fame guy, too, he had me as a teacher and knew I didn’t play the game. But he took a chance and hired me as a JV coach, and that was the beginning of my high school coaching career. So I’m very, very grateful to those guys for giving me an opportunity to play when a lot of people probably wouldn’t have.”

In 2002, Sparks took the reins of the Trojans’ program, where he collected 99 of his career wins. In his time there, which ran through 2020, Clawson won at least five games in 13 seasons, almost of all them coinciding with playoff berths. The Trojans picked up four league championships in that tenure, including most recently in 2019.

“My first year, in 2002, taking over for Coach Moore, we won our last game of the season in the pouring rain at Hazel Park to clinch the playoffs. That was my first year, and that’s a memory I’ll never forget. I had the opportunity to coach my son (Ty), and didn’t really appreciate it while he was there, but looking back at that, it was pretty special.”

Sparks’ father graduated and played at Clawson, and Jim, as he puts it, is a “Trojan at heart.” But a confluence of factors led to a change of scenery. His family had moved out to Wolverine Lake — Sparks admitted to desiring a new challenge, also — and ultimately, Clawson grad Brian Gordon, then the athletic director at Novi High School, reached out looking for a football coach.

“(Brian) gave me this call asking if I knew anybody that would be interested in coaching because he lost his coach,” Sparks said. “I’m like, ‘Why are you calling me? I don’t know anybody.’ And he said, ‘What about you? Have you ever thought about leaving?’ And I’m like, ‘Nah, I’m cool.’ And he said to just come by, check out what we’ve got (in Novi) and see what we’ve got here. And Willy Mena is the first guy he introduced me to, he’s our stat guy and everything, and he spoke so highly of it. The facilities were amazing. It was a great thing for me personally and professionally.”

The rest is history that continues to be written. Sparks began with the Wildcats in 2021, picking up his 100th victory in his debut, and will begin his fifth season there this coming fall.

“I had to build new relationships and reinvent how I did things, because dynamics between Novi and Clawson are so vastly different between population and resources,” Sparks said. “The time I spent in Clawson really helped with that — I doubt someone could go from Novi to Clawson (laughs) — but coming from a place where I had to do everything, organize everything, to all of a sudden, someone else is setting up the field, it was great.

“It was getting to the point where I was contemplating retiring from the game, and it just gave me a rebirth, you know? It got the juices flowing again, and came at the perfect time for me. When I wake up in the morning and don’t want to write a practice plan or go to weight training, I guess it’s time to hang it up. But even when I get in those feelings a little bit, as soon as you’re around the kids or you come here (to the All-Star Game), you’re reinvigorated and ready to go.”

Sparks said he started months ago, jotting down notes for his Hall of Fame speech, making sure to thank his family and the many players he’s mentored. But trying to isolate one funny moment from Sparks’ career was a task he had trouble tackling.

“Just every moment I get to spend with the coaches, the laughs … They asked us for the Hall of Fame to write down a most humorous moment, and I just had to decline, because it’s been 30 years of just the best times of my life,” he said. “To pick one moment? The whole involvement with the sport of football, the city of Clawson, with Novi, the Coaches Association … Next to my wife and children, the sport of football has given me the most monumental memories I’ve had. I owe so much to everyone, and I’m eternally grateful to the game.”