BIO for Lisa Sparkman-Allen
Lisa Sparkman-Allen is a Human Resource Manager for the Department of Revenue. She has been married to her husband Derrick Allen for 14 years and has two children, Laney (19 years old) and Bayleigh (9 years old). She has been playing and coaching volleyball for over 25 years. She started playing club in 1992, when she was 11 years old and played for Big Bend Volleyball Club. She played 4 years on varsity at Lincoln High School where she made the All-Big-Bend Team her junior and senior years, playing both middle and outside.
She held the record at Lincoln for the most blocks in 1999, received MVP both her junior and senior years, was the voted the Athlete of Year at Lincoln and the 6A State Region 1 Player of the Year in 1999.
She accepted an athletic scholarship to South Florida Community College and then continued playing at the University of West Florida, receiving another athletic scholarship in 2001. In 2002, Lisa started her coaching career at Maclay School in Tallahassee, then moved on to coach at Lincoln High School, John Paul II and Florida High.
Volleyball is one of the few loves in her life and she enjoys it even more because she gets the privilege of coaching with her father, Larry Sparkman. They began coaching together in 2007 at John Paul II, making it to the state tournament in 2008, taking second place.
They then continued coaching together at Florida High for 5 seasons (2009-2014), making it to the state tournament again in 2013. From 2016 through 2023 she coached at Lawton Chiles High School, helping the team win its first district championship in 15 years in 2023 and making it to the regional playoffs.
Lisa also has many years of club coaching experience under her belt. She started coaching club in 2002 and has coached for numerous clubs in Tallahassee, including TVA, NFVA, the Sparks Volleyball Club, Tallahassee Juniors and most recently Prostyle Volleyball Academy.