Erika Valek will be in her second season on staff after being named an assistant in 2015.
Valek graduated from Purdue University in 2004, after a stellar four-year career with the Boilermakers. She helped the team win four-straight conference titles, and finish as the National Runner-Ups in St. Louis in 2001. In 2003, Valek was named to the All-Big Ten Team, and was also named to the NCAA All-East Region Tournament team. In 2004, Valek won the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award as the Best Women's College Basketball Player Under 5'8''. Following graduation, Valek started a great professional career and was drafted in the second round of the WNBA Draft by Detroit and traded to Phoenix.
After being released from the Phoenix Mercury, she continued her professional career overseas playing for Kastoria in Greece for one season, then with the Colombian National team in Villavicencio, Colombia for the FIBA South American Championships. Valek also played in Turkey with Botas, before once again playing in Colombia, this time at the XX Central American & Caribbean Games. After working at the Valek Sports Academy as the Basketball Academy Assistant Director, she played with the Caja Rural Division II Basketball Club.
Following the stint in Zamora, Spain, she spent one season playing for Solna in Sweden, before returning to South America, playing for the Colombian National Team at three different tournaments including hosting the FIBA America's Pre Olympic tournament in her home country. Valek returned to Sweden, with the Sallén Basket Club, where she spent two seasons. She was named guard of the year in 2012. She finished out her career at the FIBA South American Championship with Club Estancia leading the team to the silver medal in Quito, Ecuador, and a final season with Club Pabor in Neiva, Colombia.
She has also worked camps throughout the eastern seaboard and overseas in Colombia and Sweden.
