UWEC Athletics Hall of Fame
Sherm Carstensen almost single-handedly carried the Blugolds to an NCAA championship. The 6-6 shooting forward, who with his twin brother Jerry took Eau Claire Memorial to the 1996 WIAA state tournament, was the MVP of the 2000 national tournament, scoring 70 points in the two Final Four games in Salem, Virginia. After a 34-point performance in a 70-42 win over Salem, Massachusetts in the semifinals, he poured in 36 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in a 79-74 loss to Calvin, Michigan in the title game. He had put the Blugolds into the national tournament when he hit a last-second three-point shot in a 60-58 win over conference champion UW-Stevens Point in the sectional final at Storm Lake, Iowa. Carstensen started his collegiate career at UW-Green Bay but returned to UWEC after getting a medical redshirt in 1996-97. He played in 100 career games, starting 86, and scored 1,718 career points to rank sixth on the all-time list at the time of his induction. Carstensen scored more than a third of his field goals from 3-point range, converting at a .375 clip. Carstensen had a banner junior season with the second-best single season point total in school history as he scored 712 points, averaging 21.6 per game. He was also the leading scorer as a senior when the Blugolds advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament. That appearance represented the last time a Blugold team had advanced to the post-season until March of 2019. In addition to his scoring, Carstensen averaged 4.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game for his career with 132 total steals. He hit 47.3 percent from the field and 73.4 percent from the foul line. Carstensen was a three-time All-Conference selection and twice was named to the NABC All-Region First Team. He was a D3hoops.com First Team All-American as a senior after earning Third Team honors as a junior.
Carstensen graduated in 2001 with a major in mathematics and a minor in finance. Following graduation, he played with the Marathon Oil Exhibition Team and also in the CBA with the Saskatchewan Hawks. He also earned his Certified Financial Planner Designation as a Financial Advisor and worked in various business positions until 2012, when he obtained a degree in education from Immanuel Lutheran College. Since then, he has served as a teacher and principal at Lutheran schools in Watertown, South Dakota and Markesan, Wisconsin. In 2017, he was called as a teacher and assistant principal at Immanuel Lutheran School in Mankato, Minnesota. In the fall of 2021, he assumed the duties of interim principal at Morning Star Lutheran School in Jackson, Wisconsin.
