Fletcher Merkel led an adventure into the middle of Huntington Bank Stadium in October 2024.
It was a Saturday evening that has become cherished, and even eulogized, after that charismatic 8-year-old boy was murdered in the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis on Aug. 27.
Last year, Fletcher, three of his second-grade friends and two chaperon dads attended the Gophers’ home game against 11th-ranked Southern California. Boyhood antics ensued before and during the game, but when Minnesota pulled off the 24-17 upset, Fletcher didn’t joke around when asked if he wanted the group to join rowdy college kids and elated adults in a field storming.
“Absolutely,” Fletcher said.
Will Sharpe, who coached Fletcher in flag football and other sports, shared that synopsis during Merkel’s funeral service at Mt. Olivet Lutheran Church on Sept. 7.
“That was Fletcher: Up for anything, loving life, loving sports, loving every moment,” Sharpe said from the pulpit.
‘A distinct memory’
It was a memorable contest for the Gophers, but for those there with Fletcher, it has become an indelible experience.
Family friend Michael Roaldi and his son MJ, along with dad Adam Dietenberger and his son Sebi, brought Fletcher and Will’s son, Trip Sharpe, to the USC game. On the ride up from south Minneapolis, Fletcher and the other football-loving boys talked about how the Gophers were going to win.
Fletcher might not have been the biggest Gopher fan of all-time — he did wear a Richfield baseball shirt to the game — but his positivity, energy and leadership shined through all evening.
“A glue guy,” Sharpe told the Pioneer Press. “When you think about someone who will pull kids together, who kids look to, that’s him in the classroom and on the field.”
On the walk to the stadium, the boys goofed around and tossed a football. “All smiles, all excitement, just so much energy,” Roaldi said.
Inside the stadium, Roaldi tried to remind the boys the Gophers were underdogs; betting odds placed the Trojans as 8½-point favorites. Yet after an early Gophers score, the boys ripped off their shirts and waved them over their heads. After more Minnesota points hit the scoreboard, his friends mobbed Fletcher as if he had scored the winning touchdown.
As the U kept it close, the boys made sure to remind Roaldi that he said the Gophers were likely to lose.
When the upset became official, the dads helped the little boys onto the field and the foursome took a bunch of photos, including one from the bench as if they were Big Ten players. In that pic, Fletcher lounged on the end, giving a thumbs up.
Fletcher Merkel, left, gives a thumbs up from the Minnesota Gophers bench after storming the field when Minnesota upset No. 11 Southern California 24-17 at Huntington Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on Oct. 5, 2024. Joining Fletcher, are from left, Sebi Dietenberger. MJ Roaldi and Trip Sharpe. These children and their families are members at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis and cherish this game as a memory after Merkel was killed in the mass shooting at the church on Aug. 27, 2025. (Courtesy of Michael Roaldi)
Last Friday, the Gophers pulled off another upset of a ranked team, a 24-6 win over then-No. 25 Nebraska. Fans stormed the field for the first time since USC.
Afterward, head coach P.J. Fleck embraced how the win allowed fans to “create moments and memories” on the field.
Roaldi choked up when recalling that fun night.
“It means a lot,” he said in an interview this month. “It’s great to have that memory because I know (Fletcher) had an amazing time that night. He was smiling ear-to-ear for four hours. … It’s easy to lose some of the details of what he was like day-to-day, but it’s a big event like that, such a distinct memory of how Fletcher was and what he meant to us.”
‘Samson of the moment’
Former Gophers lineman Matt Stommes and two of his children lived through the shooting inside Annunciation church the morning of Aug. 27.
He and his wife Molly took their four children from their home across the street to the church and school grounds. After dropping the kids off, Molly returned home to work, while Matt went inside the church for the first weekly Wednesday school mass of the academic year.
Matt and Molly’s youngest twins stayed in their kindergarten classroom that day, while their 8-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter entered the sanctuary. The service started.
Once the first shots rang out, children screamed and school leaders told the children to get down.
Stommes said he dipped low toward the outside his rear pew and crawled to the nearest exterior doors to hold them shut. The doors were locked, but he “felt as though blocking those doors was the most important thing I could do at that time,” he wrote in an email to the Pioneer Press.
The Stommes’ two older children were unharmed physically in the shooting spree, while Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski were slain. There were 30 total victims, including 24 other children and three adults injured by gunfire.
Roaldi and Sharpe consider what Stommes did inside that church during those horrific moments to be a heroic act. Once it was over, Stommes and other parents carried injured children out of the church as first responders arrived.
“I can’t speak highly enough of Matt,” Sharpe said. “He embodies Annunciation. He’s part of everything. He has four kids there. His wife is part of everything. Matt is like 6-(foot)-6. Someone described him as the Samson of the moment. … He’s putting himself in harm’s way for the kids. I just think that’s indicative of him.”
When asked about his heroism, Stommes turned attention to how the older school children protected the younger ones in a “buddy system,” and how parish leadership and school staff were on “the front lines” protecting all the children.
“They are all heroes for me when I think of their courage and strength,” Stommes wrote. “Several parishioners and parents I was standing next to at mass ran toward the children to help them immediately.”
The Annunciation shooting happened on a Wednesday; the Gophers football team opened their 2025 season the following evening.
Stommes, who grew up on a dairy farm in Eden Valley, Minn., played defensive line and then offensive line for the Gophers, winning letters from 2007-09 before a brief stint with the New York Jets. He still follows his former college team.
Gophers running back Amir Pinnix, center, celebrates his game-winning touchdown with teammates Justin Valentine, left, and Matt Stommes, right, as Minnesota defeated Miami of Ohio 41-35 in triple overtime at the Metrodome in Minneapolis on on Sept. 8, 2007. (Doug Pensinger / Getty Images)
After the tragedy, Stommes avoided watching local or national news. Yet late Thursday night, he flipped on highlights of the Gophers’ win over Buffalo, and then caught Fleck’s news conference.
Fleck’s impassioned, minutes-long opening statement touched on the “demonic tragedy” that occurred only seven miles south of the stadium. Stommes recalled Fleck saying he was praying for the victims and how he talked to his team about the shooting. How they were “playing to give hope to people, maybe for a minute,” while adding, “I’m sure this doesn’t make anyone feel better.”
Fleck’s voice cracked during his speech, but his message gave Stommes comfort and hope. Days after the game, Stommes wrote a note of thanks to Fleck. In turn, a wooden oar signed by Fleck was delivered to Stommes home.
“Matt, we are all rowing with you during this horrific time. RTB! (Row The Boat).”
Rain to rainbows
The Annunciation community was in mourning and didn’t know how to proceed with its annual September Fest, set for three weeks after the shooting. Some thought they should take a year off, but they opted for alterations instead.
After approval from church leadership, chairwoman Lisa Stocco infused the event with more than 20 Gophers football players serving as guest pitchers and coaches for the event’s centerpiece whiffle ball games. She had reached out to her old college friend Matt Simon, the Gophers’ receivers coach. She played soccer at Northern Illinois when Simon was a receiver for the Huskies.
Simon passed the request to Norries Wilson, the U’s director of player development, and he asked Stocco what she needed when and where.
“It was just one of those things that if I said ‘jump,’ they would say, ‘How high?’ ” Stocco said in a wavering voice. “It was … I didn’t even know what I needed. And they were just willing to do anything.”
The Gophers program under Fleck prides itself on “serving and giving” in the community, and a drove of players turned out on a free Friday night before their bye week on Sept. 20.
“I want to write their moms’ notes to tell them they raised good kids,” Roaldi said. “… Imagine the fun things they could have been doing, but to spend that much time with those kids, just talking to them and encouraging them, that was really cool.”
Sharpe ran into star defensive lineman Anthony Smith as they walked separately into the event, at first blown away by Smith’s mammoth stature at 6-foot-6 and 285 pounds. Smith came up to Sharpe and shook his hand.
“(He) obviously wanted to be there, wanted to be present,” Sharpe recalled. “That was just a meaningful, small glimpse into what took place.”
For Gophers players, the reality of the shooting set in when they interacted with kid victims, including 12-year-old Lydia Kaiser. The eighth grader suffered a traumatic brain injury and had surgeries to remove bullet fragments and alleviate brain swelling. She was released from the hospital in early September, with half of her head covered in long brown hair, and the other side shaved.
“When they saw Lydia, you could just see it kind of hit a lot of them — how real it was,” Roaldi said.
Gophers linebacker Devon Williams met a family effected by the shooting and gathered players for a picture. In one photo, the Gophers players surrounded Endre Gunter, a 13-year-old boy who was shot in the stomach. After being shot, he protected a 6-year-old school mate.
“It was a very humbling experience,” Williams said.
More than 20 Minnesota Gophers football players volunteered at the Annunciation Church and School’s Sept. Fest in Minneapolis on Sept. 19, 2025. They are pictured with 13-year-old Endre Gunter, wearing black in the middle, who was a victim in the mass shooting at the church on Aug. 27, 2025. (Courtesy of Lisa Stocco)
The September Fest whiffle ball games started in the rain, but the storm clouds passed as the sun and even rainbows shined through.
“It was wonderful,” Stocco said.
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