Nicole Sherry, the groundbreaking head groundskeeper for the Orioles at Camden Yards, is departing the organization this week for a new opportunity outside professional sports, multiple sources told The Banner.

Sherry became Baltimore’s head groundskeeper in 2006. She became the second-ever woman to hold that position for a Major League Baseball team.

Sherry will become the assistant secretary of agriculture plant industries for the state of Maryland, one of the sources said.

Sherry is a decorated groundskeeper. She earned the Sports Turf Managers Association’s Dick Ericson Founders’ Award in 2019, which is given to a member who leads effectively and positively impacts the sports turf community.

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She oversaw the 2023 re-turfing of Camden Yards, which marked the first time in 23 years Oriole Park underwent a full re-sodding. The changes to the left-field wall, first moving farther out and then returning closer to home plate, made Sherry’s work even more vital in recent years as she altered the grass and dirt layers under the field.

Sherry is a New Castle, Delaware, native, who earned degrees from Delaware Technical Community College in 2000 and the University of Delaware in 2002.

Before taking over the lead position in 2006, Sherry was an assistant head groundskeeper for three years, and she also worked for the Trenton Thunder in the minors for three years. She was inducted into the Trenton Thunder Baseball Hall of Fame in 2025.

According to a 2021 article in Baltimore Magazine, this had long been a dream job for Sherry. While pursuing an agriculture degree from Delaware Tech, she visited Camden Yards on an irrigation class field trip. On that trip, she realized her goal of working at the stadium someday.

“I realized I could do this in baseball, my favorite sport,” Sherry told the magazine.

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This week, there has been no slacking off. After the game Saturday night, Sherry was the last person on the field. With a broom, she dusted dirt off the grass and back onto the infield, making sure she left the field pristinely.

She’s been doing that for two decades.

This story will be updated.