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OCTOBER 2023 17 "I went to a coach and said I would give it a try and sort of figured it out from there," Sparks said. As a senior, he made 6 of 8 field goals, 19 of 20 point-after attempts and averaged 46 yards a punt. At the same time Sparks was growing as a kicker, he was literally growing up. He recalls gaining five to six inches in height between 10th grade and his senior season. "I think my height helps because I've got real long levers, so I can hit the ball well," the 6-foot-6 Sparks said. "I just use the le- vers that I have to my advantage." During his growth spurt, Sparks never felt he lost the overall athletic ability he devel- oped playing soccer for so many years. "I think playing soccer really helped me with like keeping my footwork good," Sparks said. "I was like originally really skinny, kind of like a baby deer at times, but I kind of grew into my body a little bit more and just got used to it." Sparks was headed for Jacksonville State on an academic scholarship when Loui- siana-Monroe offered him an opportunity to kick at the college level as a preferred walk-on. As a first-year in 2020, he punted 30 times for the Warhawks, averaging 44.6 yards per attempt. But the team went 0-10 and the coaching staff was let go. Sparks didn't get a sense the new staff was com- mitted to him, so he looked elsewhere and headed north to Minnesota. He did not play for the Golden Gophers during the 2021 campaign but used a red- shirt season as an opportunity to improve his craft. "I spent that time [at Minnesota] just getting better and improving, because I was still sort of new to punting. I was very incon- sistent," Sparks said. "Then during the spring after my redshirt year, I realized that they were going a different route, because they had a guy that had solidified the spot." With his name in transfer portal, Sparks drew interest from Miami (Fla.) and Jack- son State, but "didn't feel like either one of those was a good opportunity for me." That's when UVA special teams analyst Drew Meyer noticed Sparks and started to do a deep dive on his abilities. One thing that stood out to Meyer, a former punter at Wisconsin, was his Twitter profile photo. "His size and his height stood out, but then also his flexibility," Meyer said. "His old Twitter picture was of him in practice when his knee was touching his face mask with his foot all the way up in the air. For a guy his height that was pretty unique. "There was some really good stuff on film and it was pretty exciting to see if there was a mutual interest and potential opportunity." Sparks visited and liked the feel and size of UVA and the surrounding community. "The coaches were a big part of it too, because they were really adamant about me coming," Sparks said. "Once you experi- ence that feeling of being wanted some- where, I think you should take it." It turned out to be a perfect fit. Last season, Sparks matched the UVA single-season punting average record, led the ACC and finished eighth in the country with a 45.9 yards per kick. Against Pitt, he had three punts of more than 60 yards, the first UVA punter ever with three 60-yarders in a game. He earned second-team All-ACC honors and was voted by his teammates as one of the Hoos' five captains at the end of the campaign. Meyer, for one, was not surprised at Sparks' immediate success at Virginia. "Sparky is as big of a student of the game as I've ever been around," Meyer said. "He's really particularly specific and he knows exactly what he wants and he's able to focus on that every time and he takes a lot of pride in that." Last spring, Sparks was rewarded for his outstanding play by receiving a scholarship. He entered the 2023 season on the watch list for the Ray Guy Award, presented to the nation's top punter. Sparks believes he can continue to im- prove as a punter and works in practice to refine the mental part of the game. "I remember my first year, every time I went to punt, I was so nervous I could hardly do my mechanics right," Sparks said. "A lot of it is mental and a lot of it is having trust in the guys in front of you. "If you can drill your to the point that you can do it with your eyes closed then it doesn't matter if you're nervous." Sparks, who's pursuing a bachelor's de- gree in biology, hopes to work in the health care field as a physician assistant. His fa- ther, Dan, is an orthopedic surgeon. That may need to wait. As he continues to develop and improve as a punter, Sparks' football career may be far from over. " His size and his height stood out, but then also his flexibility. His old Twitter picture was of him in practice when his knee was touching his face mask with his foot all the way up in the air. For a guy his height that was pretty unique. UVA SPECIAL TEAMS ANALYST DREW MEYER ON SPARKS BY JIM DAVES G rowing up in Gadsden, Ala., about an hour northeast of Birming- ham, Daniel Sparks spent more time kicking a soccer ball than a football. He played the European version of the sport from fourth grade through high school. When he finally did pursue football in middle school, he lined up as a quar- terback. In 10th grade he gave up football completely and figured his road to college would just be as a "regular" student. But with his high school team struggling to find a reliable kicker, at the urging of his father, Sparks returned to the gridiron, but this time as a kicking specialist. Heading into his senior season at Gadsden City High School, he knew the team was without a punter, so decided to work on that skill set, too.