Former Orioles groundskeeper navigates a new role with Agriculture Department

As Nicole Sherry puts it, she had reached the “grass ceiling.”

She was one of 30 head groundskeepers at a Major League Baseball stadium. She had achieved the dream she’d nurtured since her college days studying agriculture. Her domain was the sprawling expanse of Kentucky bluegrass of Camden Yards, home to the Baltimore Orioles.

And so, after more than 20 years on the job, she left it behind for a new challenge: an assistant secretary post in the Maryland Department of Agriculture.

Maybe to some people, it’s not a natural fit — moving from the fast-paced world of professional sports to the infamously slow-moving gears of bureaucracy. But to Sherry, it makes perfect sense.

“I wanted more challenges. I wanted more exposure to the great people that we work with now,” said Sherry, 48, who started in her new role last month. “I was happy, but also I looked at my next 30 years, and what did that look like? I probably wouldn’t have done much more than continued on the same path with the Orioles.”

Maryland Agriculture Secretary Kevin Atticks, who was appointed to his post nearly four years ago by Gov. Wes Moore (D), admits there was some recruitment involved.

“We’re very interested in hiring to get rock stars,” Atticks said. “We’re bringing in really, really interesting people that have competencies, but are really good people — like, good to work for.”

Atticks is quick to point out the connection between Sherry’s old gig and her new one.

“One of the biggest questions that I’ve gotten is: Why? What’s the connection?” Atticks said. “It gives me the opportunity to say she’s been cultivating a monoculture crop for 24 years — literally the best in class, the best in the nation.”

As assistant secretary, Sherry will oversee six programs at the department, including turf and seed oversight, pesticide regulation, mosquito control, plant protection, weed and forest pest programs and the Office of the State Chemist. That includes the network of laboratories that carefully evaluate seed, sod and chemicals to ensure they meet state regulations.

Many of these programs feel familiar to Sherry, who long considered herself a type of farmer. As a certified fertilizer and pesticide applicator, Sherry battled the elements — along with harmful pests — to nurture the grass at Camden Yards, managing and training a rotating staff of 40 seasonal workers.

“Any challenges that I’ll probably face here, I probably faced them 50,000 times at the Baltimore Orioles with that little crew that I ran,” she said.

A Newcastle, Delaware, native who loved baseball and became fascinated by the science behind plant life, Sherry obtained her degree in agriculture from the University of Delaware. Sherry grew up a Philadelphia Phillies fan, and grew accustomed to the team’s synthetic turf field.

“The first time I was able to set eyes on a real grass field was a field trip for irrigation class that brought me to Camden Yards,” Sherry said.

It was a light-bulb moment, she said.

“I was like, not listening to anything the head groundskeeper was giving us a tour about,” she joked. “I was pretending to jump on the wall to catch a ball, standing where Cal Ripken stood, like it was just like incredible to be there. And then I was like: ‘Oh, wow, you can actually do this, and it falls underneath the ag umbrella.’”

Before then, though, she had actually aspired to work for her state’s agricultural department.

“My dream was to be a secretary of agriculture — not for Maryland, for Delaware,” she said. “But here I am now, working with this department and under the secretary. It’s just two goals, and I’m pretty proud to say that they have been accomplished.”

As head groundskeeper, starting in 2004, Sherry kept an eye out for harmful pests including the June beetle, and the annual bluegrass weevil, which “could annihilate the field within a week.” She and her team also had to carefully monitor soil moisture levels, temperature and other data points, and sometimes preventatively spray, to protect the field from disease. She remembers a “terrifying” bout of summer patch took hold on the field years ago, forcing her team to jump into action.

“Summer patch in your yard at home will just look like really green grass around a burnt-out area. On a Major League Baseball field it’s scattered, and it looks like it’s just spreading like little waves,” Sherry said. “And when you see the signs, it’s too late.”

But monitoring the weather during 81 home games each regular season was a more constant stressor. Even on the sunniest of days, Sherry would be in position scanning the weather radar for storm cells. Amid any signs of trouble, Sherry would confer with the team’s meteorologists – and then she’d have just 90 seconds to jog onto the field, relay the information to the umpires’ crew chief, and jog back to her position.

“There was a homestand that just occurred that was 10 days in a row, and the first five of them were rain days,” Sherry said. “Every day was rain, and every time I heard the TV on, I was like: ‘Glad that’s not me.’”

But perhaps, Sherry will be the go-to meteorologist for events hosted by the department, Atticks jokes.

Sherry admits she has lots to learn on the job, whether its the ins and outs of each program she’s supervising or orienting herself in the department’s maze-like headquarters in Annapolis, which resembles a cross between a government building and a greenhouse.

But her first order of business, she said, is learning and remembering every employees’ name.

“Names are important to me,” Sherry said. “On my crew at the Orioles … We went down and we introduced ourselves to our cleaning staff. You’re going to make a mess — they’re going to clean it up.”

As she learns the ropes, Sherry said she’s taken a bit of a break from watching baseball. Old habits, she said, die hard.

“If I see one brown spot, I have to identify it,” she said. “I have literally taken time off from watching the games. I hear it, it’s on in the background because my son loves it. But I can’t watch it, because I’ll be looking at the grass.”