Larry Sparkman was born on December 11, 1952, in Tucson, Arizona the oldest of three sons to Bird Colonel William Jr. Sparkman and Dona Sparkman.  His father was in the Airforce, so Larry moved a lot during the first 14 years of his life.  He lived in Arizona, Washington State, Mississippi, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Okinawa, California, and Florida.

Larry played baseball, basketball, and football through middle school and his freshman year in High School. As a sophomore in high school, he focused only on Baseball for 3 years at Satellite Beach High School in Satellite Beach Florida while his father was stationed a Patrick Airforce base. His proudest moment was winning the starting shortstop position his senior year and earning the nick name of “Rocket Arm“.  Larry was also a drummer in his high school band, sang in his high school chorus,  and played guitar for the church youth group folk choir.

In 1970 Larry graduated from High School and went to the University of South Florida for 2 years and then Florida State University graduating in 1974 with a bachelor’s degree in Physical Education and minors in Math and Computer Science.  He then earned a master’s degree in Movement Sciences with emphasis in Motor Learning and Sports Psychology in 1979, while teaching physical education and math in Leon County. Also, in 1973 he was married to Beth Sparkman and lived in the FSU Alumni village until graduation.

During Larry’s time at FSU, he discovered the sport of Volleyball and played outside hitter for the FSU men’s volleyball team from 1973 to 1981.  From that time on, his love of the sport of volleyball has dominated his life as he continued to play on USAV travel teams until the mid-90’s.  In 1992 he began to coach club volleyball when his daughter Lisa started playing the game and then started coaching  in High School in 2003 which he is still doing today.

In 1980 Larry changed careers from teaching to Information Technology as a computer programmer for the State of Florida.  His IT career spanned 40 years,  working as a Systems Engineer and Technical Manager for EDS in the 80s and 90s, on Medicaid and Student Loan accounts, helped establish a Project Management Office (PMO) for Computer Associates and SEVA Technologies in the 2000s, managed a PMO for the Florida Northwood Shared Resource Center from 2012 to 2016 and worked as a Data Center Project Manager for the Florida Agency for State Technology in Tallahassee, Florida, until his retirement from the State of Florida in February of 2021. Since then, he has continued doing part-time project management consulting and coaching volleyball.

During his 40-year career as an IT project manager Larry and Beth lived in Tallahassee, had two children, Lisa and Scott, and built two houses, the second off Bradfordville Road where they still live today.

Larry and his wife Beth are the proud parents of Lisa and Scott, Grandparents to Laney and Bayleigh, and celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary in June of 2023.