By Laurie Los
The Standard-Times, New Bedford, Mass.
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) Nancy Sparrow’s career path took her to Denver in 1995 and she’s been there ever since. In 2004, she started her own business, “Sparrow Solutions”, which provides support services and solutions to individuals, households and businesses.
New Bedford
Nancy Sparrow has a confession to make.
“I loved softball, but I had no vision of ever being a pitcher,” said the 49-year-old Sparrow, who is regarded as Apponequet’s all-time greatest pitcher in the program’s storied history. “I loved hitting and being a shortstop in the middle of the action. I was like, ‘I’ll never be a pitcher.'”
That was until legendary softball coach Peter Looney took one look at her arm.
“My sister (Jen) was eight years older than me and I knew what it meant to play softball for Peter Looney at Apponequet,” said Sparrow, a Lakeville native. “We all wanted to play for Peter Looney so in the eighth grade I went to one of his winter clinics with Janna (Venice). It was a pitcher’s clinic and I was there catching. I happened to pass the ball back just for fun and coach Looney saw it. That was it.
“He was the best of the best and there were no questions.”
Sparrow began training as a pitcher that winter and Looney primed her for varsity action by having her play on the freshmen team when she got to Apponequet.
“I was practicing all of the time, but I had no game experience,” Sparrow said. “I progressed pretty quickly to throw hard and get down the fundamentals. Peter Looney had me playing freshmen ball so that I could gain confidence as a pitcher because I had never pitched. I had always played shortstop.”
Sparrow was called up to varsity at the end of her freshman year and delivered a playoff win in her only inning of action. The Lakers went on to beat Greenfield 10-0 in the 1986 Div. 2 state championship.
By her sophomore year, Sparrow had established herself as Apponequet’s ace. She went 12-1 with a 0.80 ERA that year as she helped the Lakers defend their Div. 2 state title by defeating Wahconah 7-1.
“When I was younger I had senior catchers so they were calling my pitches and I really trusted them,” Sparrow said. “They were doing a lot of that. We just had so much confidence with each other knowing everyone was in their position and that they were exactly where they needed to be and they’d get the job done. It was a blast to win together and challenge each other.”
As a junior, Sparrow allowed just two earned runs all season while throwing five no-hitters, including back-to-back no-nos, and posting a 13-1 record. She threw another no-hitter in the tournament to lead the Lakers to a third-straight Div. 2 state crown. She allowed just 10 base hits while striking out 113 batters for a 0.11 ERA during the regular season.
“I had six pitches I was very comfortable with: fastball, changeup, drop, rise, curve outside and curve inside,” she said. “I was able to keep batters off-balance with the curves and offspeed, but I had a lot of depth with my pitches. I had really improved and gotten a lot of confidence.”
Sparrow and the Lakers were heavily favored to capture a fourth-straight Div. 2 title her senior year, but errors proved to be costly and overshadowed an 18-strikeout performance from Sparrow in Apponequet’s 2-1 loss to Oakmont in the 1989 championship game.
“I remember more about that game than the other games,” said Sparrow. “It was a really tough way to go out. We were the better team on paper and we had the experience, but none of us could hit the slower pitcher. It wasn’t anything we had seen before. We had strong hitters and it threw off our timing. We weren’t able to adjust soon enough. Then we had errors. I had errors and it was very hard to go out in that way. We all felt like we had let each other down and the town down.”
Thirty-one years later, Sparrow still thinks about that loss.
“With the loss, it’s life-changing and a learning experience,” said Sparrow, who admitted it was hard to get back out playing softball the next day for her Junior Olympic team. “Nobody put blame on one thing or one person. I’ve competed in a lot of sports as an adult and getting past that loss really built strength.”
Over Sparrow’s Hall of Fame career, she won 36 of 40 games and had a career ERA of less than a run. She also threw 13 no-hitters as a perennial South Coast Conference All-Star.
She also had a strong bat, hitting .345 with five home runs and 28 RBI as a junior and .534 with six home runs and 24 RBI as a senior.
“It was incredible,” she said. “I had a lot of support from a lot of people along the way.”
Sparrow also stood out as a forward in basketball, earning three All-Star nominations. She played three years of varsity field hockey as well, notching seven goals and 10 assists as a senior midfielder.
A versatile athlete, Sparrow had her pick when it came to college.
“Princeton was looking at me for field hockey and softball and Brown was looking at me for basketball and Harvard for pitching,” she said. “I just always had it in my head that college was going to be for the rest of my life, so I was very focused on choosing a college for education and not for sports. I knew I wasn’t going to become a professional athlete in those sports so I was looking at college much more focused on a career and to win in life and business. Sports came second.”
Sparrow — who also received interest from softball programs at Notre Dame, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Connecticut — decided she wanted to go the Ivy League route and Harvard University offered just what she wanted.
Sparrow studied psychology as it applied to business and started off as a softball player.
“For a number of reasons I only played freshman year,” she said. “After playing one year at Harvard, I realized that I had taken softball as far as I needed to. For me, I had already played at the highest level with the Junior Olympics and at Apponequet so I thought I’d try something new so I did crew on a competitive club team.”
After Sparrow graduated in 1993 with a psychology degree, she ventured out into the business world in Boston.
“I worked for several different companies — entrepreneurial types,” she said. “I learned a lot from there and helped grow businesses. I was given a lot of responsibility at a young age with building teams and building networks.”
Sparrow’s career path took her to Denver in 1995 and she’s been there ever since. In 2004, she started her own business, Sparrow Solutions, which provides support services and solutions to individuals, households and businesses.
“On the business side, we provide day-to-day business management and support to small business and entrepreneurs,” she said. “Our residential divisions include landscaping, handyman/repair/remodel, property management, personal support and concierge services as well as catering and prepared meal services.”
Sparrow said she uses her background in sports to manage her six businesses.
“Many of the lifelong lessons I learned at Apponequet, I use in running my businesses today,” she said. “It’s a blast. I have great teams. A lot of my training is from playing those team sports and working together. I’ve learned to play to their strengths and be supportive, make an impact and allow them to grow.”
Sparrow is also a certified integrative holistic coach in areas of wellness, high performance, professional development, business, leadership and team coaching.
“I’ve met some challenges in my life where I asked myself, ‘What do I want in life? What is driving me?'” she said. “It was about finding my passion and living a life that feels like it’s flowing. This is my fun project that I’m passionate about where I can give back from what I’ve learned. It’s magic.”
Sparrow is currently in the process of launching her newest company, Renegade, which is a human development retreat company that is created for people who want more adventure, discovery, fun and growth in their lives.
“I feel pretty lucky that I get to play, adventure, compete and grow with my teams every day and absolutely reflect often, with gratitude, on the great teachers I have had,” she said. “Coaching and leadership is a major focus in my work today. Having the experiences I had as a younger athlete and the training and guidance provided by my coaches was invaluable.”
Sparrow still finds time to live an active lifestyle that includes crossfit, hiking, biking and circuit training. Adventure racing is next on Sparrow’s bucket list. She’s also enjoyed success at competitive tennis, winning the Colorado State Open Mixed 40 Division championship and the Rocky Mountain Regional championship in Las Vegas with her ex-husband, Mark Scruggs, a tennis pro.
“When I moved out to Colorado when I was 23, I didn’t know anybody so I started playing tennis, something I did as a child,” she said. “A lot of my fun and passion is still being driven by the athlete in me.”
Sparrow shares her passion for sports with her daughter, Chloe, who was a standout volleyball player in high school. Now she’s entering her second year as a psychology major at the University of Arizona.
“She kind of did the same thing I did,” Sparrow said. “She was on track of wanting to play Division I volleyball and was heavily recruited. She had a big-time injury she had to recover from and then she re-evaluated what she wanted in college. She decided to focus on her studies and play on a travel club team, which is competitive and great.
“I absolutely love being a mom. It’s so fun supporting her in her journey. She loves being an athlete. She loves to compete.”
Sparrow said her own parents, Ann and Terry Sparrow, were instrumental in her success on and off the field.
“They’ve always supported me to be the best I can be in everything that I do,” she said. “My dad worked full time, but he was at every single game. My mom would be the one under the bleachers when games would get close. I was always super grateful for their support.
“My parents always encouraged us to follow our dreams, give all we could to maximize our potential and honor our commitments to ourselves and others. I have followed this for most of my life.”
While Sparrow’s dreams have changed over time, she’s always worked at making them a reality.
___
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
