Sheri Stockmoe to be inducted into North Dakota Sports Hall of Fame

JAMESTOWN — A brother-sister duo will be in the North Dakota Sports Hall of Fame for the first time in history after Sheri (Kleinsasser) Stockmoe is inducted at 5 p.m. on Saturday, June 21, at the Jamestown Civic Center.

“It’s a great honor for sure. I think there are a lot of great athletes, frankly, far better than I that probably belong in there before me,” Stockmoe said. “So I’m very very honored.”

Carrington, North Dakota, natives Stockmoe and her brother, Jim Kleinsasser, will be the first set of siblings in the North Dakota Sports Hall of Fame since Jocelyn and Monique Lamoreaux were inducted in 2016. Kleinsasser was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2008 for his play with the University of North Dakota and the Minnesota Vikings in the NFL.

Stockmoe said she hasn’t spoken a lot about being in the Hall of Fame with her brother but he will be at the ceremony supporting her.

“I think it’s a real honor and if anything it’s a testament to the fact that Jimmy and I picked our parents very well. Athletically, we were gifted but beyond that we just had the most supportive parents,” Stockmoe said. “They never pushed us, they were wonderful examples of being positive, good humans and were always happy for whatever we accomplished. I think we were really lucky there. We hit the jackpot when it comes to parents.”

Stockmoe had a decorated basketball career at Carrington High School and the University of North Dakota.

According to her biography on the North Dakota Sports Hall of Fame website, Stockmoe helped lead Carrington High School to back-to-back runner-up finishes at the Class B state tournament and was named to the All-State First Team during her senior season.

Stockmoe helped the University of North Dakota go 96-19 overall and win two conference titles while making the NCAA Division II tournament all four years of her career. In the 1993-94 season, the then-Fighting Sioux, now Fighting Hawks, went 18-0 in the North Central Conference, the first time in program history that UND was undefeated in conference play in a single season.

Individually, Stockmoe was a two-time All-American and named the 1995 Rawlings/Women's Basketball Coaches Association's Division II Player of the Year. She finished with 1,941 career points, which is second on the all-time leading scorers list at UND. She is also in the top 10 in eight career statistical categories. In 1995, she was also named the 1995 Rawlings/Women's Basketball Coaches Association's Division II Player of the Year.

Stockmoe said she is the most proud of helping lay the groundwork for the Fighting Hawks' success in the future. She said she is also proud of the relationships that she built with her old teammates.

“I’ll be honest, it wasn’t a lot of games or records or anything like that; it’s more about the people,” Stockmoe said. “I had amazing coaches from high school to college. I had amazing teammates again from high school to college and again my family. I think there are so many people that had a hand in any good I accomplished when it came to athletics.”

Stockmoe said the biggest growth within the UND women's basketball program has come as a direct result of the athletic department’s move up to NCAA Division I.

“The game itself is so different I think … and that’s just all around then when I played,” Stockmoe said. “I feel like we ran a lot of set plays and those type of things and that seems to not always be the case in today’s game of basketball. It’s a lot faster I think then when I played. But I think one change I’ve seen especially with UND is there used to be, it was a huge group of girls coming from North Dakota, Minnesota and then you sprinkle in a few other states, but now it seems to be the opposite. I’m glad to see UND is kinda making that shift now this coming year. I think they’re gonna have far more Minnesota players than they’ve had in the last few years but I’d like to see more of that.”

Stockmoe said she grew up idolizing NBA players like Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.

“As I got older, I think I had a lot of again great coaches. Gene Roebuck (former UND head coach) was a wonderful mentor to me as far as being a coach, making me a better player but just someone, too, that became a confident and a good friend,” Stockmoe said. “So he’s always been a wonderful mentor to me too. But I think in today's world there’s far more opportunities for young girls to see opportunities to see women competing than there was in the ‘80s and ‘90s.”

While she said she does not attend as many Carrington or Fighting Hawks games as she wants, she pays attention to the teams with games being streamed online from her home in Fargo.

“When the girls team was at state this year having the opportunity to watch them play and knowing some of their parents, that’s always interesting too,” Stockmoe said. “So definitely I keep an eye on all of it for sure and still feel like I’m a Cardinal and a Fighting Sioux always.”

Stockmoe’s advice to her younger self would be to enjoy the moment.

“The window of playing is so short and just to give it your all and enjoy it because there’s so much to be grateful for and sports will give you what you give it, just really enjoy every moment because it goes fast,” Stockmoe said.

Hello,
My name is Max O'Neill. I am a Sports Reporter at The Jamestown Sun. I am a native New Yorker, who graduated from Ithaca College in 2020 with a degree in Television-Radio.