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 {{Colombia-sport-bio-stub