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, Colombia. Bucaramanga has the fifth-largest economy by GDP in Colombia, has the lowest unemployment rate and has the ninth-largest population in the country, with ...
to Janeth and Juan Carlos Valek, she played for
Lubbock Coronado High School 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 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 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 (WNBA), Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was founded before the league ...
.
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
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