Payton Sparks and Addie Chester were in a similar position at the end of their respective 2023-24 athletic seasons. After Sparks ended his year playing for Indiana men’s basketball and Chester with Louisville soccer, they both wanted to move on and find a school where winning was the goal.
They both decided to return to the place where their athletic careers began: Muncie.
“It's home,” Chester said.
Finishing business
After playing two seasons at Ball State, Sparks hit the transfer portal in 2023 and headed south to play for Mike Woodson and Indiana University.
However, during his time in Bloomington, the forward kept tabs on the Cardinals throughout the year.
“I watched a lot of their games,” he said. “I still missed it, and I still wanted to cheer on my buddies.”
Sparks appeared in 24 games — and had two starts — for the Hoosiers in the 2023-24 season. He averaged 2.1 points and 1.8 rebounds per game. Once the season came to a close, the thought of entering the transfer portal once more was prevalent in his mind.
He decided to put his name back in the portal, and it did not take long for Ball State assistant coach Ben Botts to reach out. Soon after his message, the Cardinals’ head coach Michael Lewis also extended his interest.
“We were all in because of who he is,” Lewis said.
When Sparks originally left Ball State for Indiana, Lewis was one of his biggest supporters. A former Hoosier himself, he understood what the 6-foot, 10-inch forward was looking for.
“I don't think we can hold any of those things against kids these days,” Lewis said. “He wanted an opportunity to test himself, and now he wants an opportunity to come back and kind of finish what he started.”
In his freshman season with the Cardinals, Sparks averaged 13.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per game, which earned him multiple accolades at the end of the season. Sparks walked away with the MAC Freshman Player of the Year award, made the All-MAC Freshman team and officially scored the third-most points for a freshman in Ball State’s history.
He followed that record-earning year with 13.3 points and 8.7 rebounds per game his sophomore season and was named to the All-MAC Second Team.
Sparks said it was because of this prior success, and the fact his family was able to watch him play frequently, that he knew he wanted to end his college career where it began.
“I missed Ball State, and I just missed the community,” Sparks said. “I missed playing close to home, and I think I have business to finish here. I want to win a MAC Championship.”
The other thing he said he missed was his former teammates. Redshirt senior forward Mickey Pearson Jr. said it felt “different” not having him in the program last season.
“He’s a big locker room guy and a good leader,” Pearson said. “You see his energy and him working hard like he’s supposed to do … I feel like guys just naturally follow him.”
When Pearson saw his former Cardinal teammate was entering the transfer portal, he was sure the pair would be teammates once again.
“I had a feeling that he was gonna come back, I'm not gonna lie,” Pearson said. “This is his first home. He had good years here, and he knows guys here already.”
While Sparks is months away from playing for the Cardinals and once again taking the court in Worthen Arena, he’s already settled into his role.
“He's fit in seamlessly, and he understands what we're about and what we're trying to accomplish,” Lewis said. “He wants to play a major role for us and he's shown some good leadership.”
Changing Cardinals
In Chester’s time with Delta soccer, the forward rose to the top of recruiting boards as she finished fifth with the most goals in an Indiana high school season (59) and she finished her high school career with 201 goals — second in state history — overall.
Ball State soccer head coach Josh Rife knew her from her skills and the local connection between their two families. However, he could not convince the former Eagle to become a Cardinal in 2022.
After committing to the University of Louisville, Chester had one goal on her mind: to help her team win a national championship. But at the time, the team was doing everything but winning.
“It was just super discouraging,” she said. “After every game, I just walked away feeling super discouraged. It wasn't just like we were losing a couple of games here and there. It was pretty much every single one.”
Dreaming of being a part of something bigger than herself, the winning attitude and the hopes of success were slipping from Chester.
“We were so far at the bottom of our conference that I was never going to have a chance to win something big,” she said.
During her freshman year, Louisville ended the season with a 6-8-2 record. Deciding to give it one more season, the team finished Chester’s sophomore year with a 4-9-5 record and sat in the No. 9 spot in the Atlantic Coast Conference. In her time with Louisville, she had two goals and eight assists.
After her second year finished, she was ready to move on. Thinking of her family and wanting to have a shot at hardware, Chester decided to make her way back to Delaware County.
“I knew [Ball State] would always be a good option. I'd be close to home, and winning the MAC would be super cool,” she said. “I kind of got to the point where I was like, ‘You can't take too many risks transferring and you don't want to do it again.’”
While Chester was happy with the decision, Rife — and fellow soccer coaches — were even more pleased.
“Even being in the Power Four world, coaches were coming up to me after she committed and were like ‘Hey, man, we tried to get her on the phone,’” Rife said.
When Ball State first attempted to recruit her, Rife’s coaching staff liked what they saw. Now on their second attempt, Chester’s game had only improved after playing with Louisville and with Indy Eleven in Indianapolis.
“Athletically, she's a dynamic player, and she can move,” Rife said. “Sure, her athleticism is elite, but then her soccer and technical ability is what makes her special. There are some kids who are technical soccer players. There are others who are elite athletically. She has both.”
In the last two seasons, Ball State soccer finished 7-5-8 and 8-8-3 despite a MAC record of 6-2-3 in 2023. While Rife doesn’t want there to be any pressure on Chester’s shoulders, he believes the new Cardinal could be a key piece in getting over the hump.
“Soccer is one of those fickle games where you can do a lot of the right things and still lose games,” Rife said. “I think when it comes down to the margins of error, to have some special players that at any moment can be a difference maker, you want to have those kids on your team.
‘Addie definitely is one of those types of players that regardless of how the game is going, good or bad, I think you know at any moment, she can just change things for you.”
Whether it’s Sparks in Worthen Arena or Chester at Briners Sports Complex, the new Cardinals look to bring wins and success to Muncie.
Contact Zach Carter at zachary.carter@bsu.edu or on X @ZachCarter85.
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