Erika Yaneth Valek (born April 9, 1982) is a former college basketball player for the

Purdue Boilermakers The Purdue Boilermakers are the official intercollegiate athletics teams representing Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana. As is common with athletic nicknames, the Boilermakers nickname is also used as colloquial designation ...

High school

Born in

Bucaramanga, Colombia Bucaramanga () is the capital and largest city of the department of Santander Department, Santander, Colombia. Bucaramanga has the fifth-largest economy by GDP in Colombia, has the lowest unemployment rate and has the ninth-largest population i ...

to Janeth and Juan Carlos Valek, she played for

Lubbock Coronado High School Lubbock ( ) is the 10th-most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of government of Lubbock County. With a population of 260,993 in 2021, the city is also the 85th-most populous in the United States. The city is in the northw ...

in Lubbock, Texas, where she was named a WBCA All-American. She participated in the 2000 WBCA High School All-America Game where she scored six points.

College

Valek, a point guard, won the

Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award The Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award was an annual college basketball award in the United States intended to honor shorter-than-average players who excelled on the court despite their size. The award, named in honor of James Naismith's daughter-in-la ...

as the best women's college basketball player under 5'8" in 2004. She was also named to the 2003 All-

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

team and the 2003 NCAA East Regional all-tournament team.

Purdue statistics

Source

Professional

She was drafted in the 2004 WNBA Draft by the

Detroit Shock The Detroit Shock were a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. They were the 2003, 2006, and 2008 WNBA champions. Debuting in 1998, the Shock were one of the league's first expansion franchises. T ...

and was traded with college teammate

Shereka Wright Shereka Monique Wright (born September 21, 1981) is an American basketball player and coach. Career She is the head coach at UT Arlington. Wright retired from competitive basketball in 2006 and has worked as an assistant coach since, at Texas T ...

and

Sheila Lambert Sheila Monique Lambert (born July 21, 1980) is a retired basketball players who played in the WNBA. Born in Seattle, Washington, she was the seventh pick in the 2002 WNBA draft. She was a member of the WNBA Championship Detroit Shock in 2003. Bay ...

for

Chandi Jones Chandi Jones (born March 25, 1982) is a professional basketball player. Jones is the daughter of Janice and David Jones , a former professional football player who later became a collegiate basketball coach. High school Born in Wharton, Texas, Jo ...

in a draft day deal to the

Phoenix Mercury The Phoenix Mercury are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona, playing in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was founded before the league's inaugural 1997 season ...

. Valek, however, was cut by the Mercury before the regular season and did not play for the team.

Notes

External links

Purdue profile
1982 births Living people Colombian women's basketball players Coronado High School (Lubbock, Texas) alumni People from Bucaramanga Point guards Purdue Boilermakers women's basketball players Central American and Caribbean Games bronze medalists for Colombia Competitors at the 2006 Central American and Caribbean Games Central American and Caribbean Games medalists in basketball Sportspeople from Santander Department {{Colombia-sport-bio-stub