Norwich — Dave Schermerhorn grew up at the Thomas J. Dodd Memorial Stadium, from the “I Peeked at the Park” tour during construction to the raucous opening day in 1995 as a 10-year-old, watching minor leaguers of his beloved New York Yankees, to his own high school games playing there and throughout his entire professional career in sports management.

Schermerhorn, 36, now says he is ready for a new venue. Schermerhorn, general manager of the Norwich Sea Unicorns, will depart Dodd Stadium and his hometown of Norwich at the end of this season to become general manager of the Vermont Lake Monsters.

There, Schermerhorn will rejoin CJ Knudsen, who hired Schermerhorn in 2009 as an intern for the then-AA Connecticut Defenders and continued to promote him to roles of growing responsibility when the Connecticut Tigers moved to Dodd Stadium in 2010. This spring, Knudsen left his position as senior vice president of the newly named Norwich Sea Unicorns for the same position in Vermont as both teams lost their professional minor league affiliations and became summer collegiate teams in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League.

“The opportunity presented itself, and I just decided it was a good time for me to take a new step in my life, a new challenge,” Schermerhorn said. “I’ve always loved to visit Burlington and Vermont, and really enjoyed it there. It seemed like the right opportunity for me to take the next step.”

Knudsen said Thursday he has been impressed with Schermerhorn’s professional skills and enthusiasm for the baseball business since he first interviewed him at the former Tim Horton’s coffee shop on West Main Street in 2009.

“He’s definitely qualified,” Knudsen said. “He does a great job for the Sea Unicorns.”

Both teams had a difficult spring of uncertainty after Major League Baseball cut ties with 42 minor league teams and eliminated the entire New York-Penn League, where both Vermont and Norwich played before the pandemic canceled the 2020 season. The Lake Monsters were sold in mid-March and scrambled to put together its Futures League team, both in the front office and on the field.

Norwich team owners had held out hope that they could still land a minor league license until late April, when the team joined the Futures League. Schermerhorn hired field staff, put together a schedule and secured sponsorships for the traditional Friday night fireworks, nightly promotions and between-innings events.

“It was a challenge for Vermont and for Norwich,” Knudsen said. “There was not a lot of time.”

Norwich Mayor Peter Nystrom called Schermerhorn’s departure “a very significant loss for us, and a gain for them.” He said Schermerhorn’s long ties to Norwich, where he grew up, helped cement the team in the community.

“It’s good to have that local connection here,” Nystrom said, “but I wish him the best.”

Schermerhorn was 10 years old when he learned his favorite team was moving into his own back yard. His father, dentist Michael Schermerhorn and fellow local dentists shared a season ticket package in the second row of Section 10, near the home dugout. “We went to hundreds of games,” he said.

Schermerhorn, a 2004 Norwich Free Academy graduate, played centerfield for the Wildcats, and recalled how the team won the ECC championship on the Dodd Stadium field.

“I kind of grew up in the stadium as a kid, and then grew up in the stadium as a professional,” Schermerhorn said.

Schermerhorn attended Stonehill College in Easton, Mass., majoring in business administration. He was hired by the Connecticut Defenders as an intern in community relations in 2009, the last year the team was in Norwich. That season ended with a playoff run and the team was “so close to winning the championship,” he recalled. “That was a lot of fun in my first year in professional baseball.”

Then the Defenders moved to Richmond, Va. In spring of 2010, Norwich learned the Short-Season Single A team of the Detroit Tigers would move to Dodd Stadium. Schermerhorn was retained as director of community relations and promotions.

He eventually was promoted to assistant general manager and then general manager when Knudsen was promoted to senior vice president.

Schermerhorn said through this season, there will be a gradual transition to allow the veteran front office staff to take on more duties as he spends time in Vermont learning that team’s business. Schermerhorn praised the Sea Unicorns’ staff, including Lee Walter, director of business development and stadium operations, and Heather Bartlett, director of concessions and merchandise.

“We’ve got great staff members in place, and I’ll be here throughout this season, gradually spending more time in Vermont. Any change would happen next season,” Schermerhorn said.

c.bessette@theday.com