The 37-year-old American assisted head coach Mike Kelly this year and will step up to the top job.
Sparrow hails from Pennsylvania.
The former guard is a defensive guru and has worked all over, from Africa to Mexico.
In his younger days, players would hire him to play defence against them.
Since 2017, he has been travelling to Australia for work and he popped up in Dunedin partway through last season.
The Nuggets finished in last place with just three wins from 20 games. Defensively, they were mostly awful, so he has a big challenge ahead.
Sparrow is based in Melbourne and is working with a community club.
He will arrive in Dunedin in March to prepare the Nuggets for the season. It will be his first coaching stint at the elite level.
Otago Nuggets general manager Angela Ruske said Sparrow did a "fantastic job around player development" and he had the respect of the players.
"I had a chat with the leadership group from the local players in the Nuggets group and a couple of the imports, and they all thought that he was ready for that head coach role and would be a good person to have in our camp," Ruske said.
"So, yeah, I've been very impressed with what I've seen both on the sideline, off court, on court, in the community as well, and I think he's a very good fit."
For our interview with Sparrow, see tomorrow’s Otago Daily Times.
