Former WNBA stars headline HOF Class of 2017

The NJCAA Women’s Basketball Coaches Association announced its 2017 inductees Wednesday. This year’s class features former players Shannon Bobbitt of Trinity Valley (Texas), Amber Holt from Southeastern Illinois and current Cloud County (Kan.) head coach Brett Erkenbrack.

Shannon Bobbitt 
Player – Trinity Valley (TX)

From The Big Apple, to Athens, Texas, to Knoxville, Tennessee, to Los Angeles, Poland, Turkey and Israel – former Trinity Valley State (TX) star Shannon Bobbitt has seen it all when it comes to playing basketball.

Bobbitt starred at Trinity Valley for two seasons. She arrived on campus in Athens and quickly established herself as one of the top women’s basketball players in the NJCAA. As a freshman she made the All-Conference team, All-Region squad and helped lead the charge for a conference championship. In her second and final season with the Cardinals, Bobbitt put her foot to the gas and success followed. While averaging 16.4 points and dishing out 7.5 assists per game, Bobbitt and the Cardinals made it to the NJCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship and finished sixth. Overall, during Bobbitt’s time with Trinity Valley, the Cardinals went 60-6 in two seasons – a 90.9 winning percentage. Coaches noticed her play on the court, as she was named the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s Junior College/Community College Player of the Year.

Once she was finished playing with Trinity Valley, the New York City native went on to play at one of the most prestigious basketball programs in all of college basketball and played for the University of Tennessee-Knoxville under the late-great Pat Summit. With the Lady Vols, Bobbitt helped guide the team to back-to-back NCAA Championships in 2007 and 2008. As a junior, she posted 8.7 points and 2.7 assists per outing. Her senior season saw improvement as the 5-foot-2 guard out of Murry Bergtaum High School in New York City averaged 9.9 points and 3.3 assists per game. Bobbitt also shot 81 percent from charity stripe. With Tennessee, she finished her NCAA collegiate career 70-5. Combining both her stops at Trinity Valley and Tennessee, Bobbitt went 130-11.

After her collegiate career, Bobbitt joined fellow inductee Amber Holt in the 2008 WNBA Draft. Bobbitt was drafted with the 15th overall pick by the Los Angeles Sparks, joining her college teammate Parker to play in the City of Angels. That same year, she signed with Botasspor of the Turkish Basketball League.

Bobbitt spent four seasons playing in the WNBA with three different teams – two with the Sparks (2008-09) and one apiece with the Indiana Fever (2011) and the Washington Mystics (2012). 

The former Trinity Valley Cardinal spent most of her professional career playing overseas. From 2008 to 2015, Bobbitt spent time playing in the Turkish, Poland, and Israel Leagues. Some of the teams she’s played on includes Maccabi Ramat Hen and Raanana Hertzeliya of the Israel League, Homend Antakya Belediyes, Besiktas CT Istanbul and TED Ankara Kolejliler of the Turkish League and Basket Konin and CCC Polkowice of the Poland League.

Bobbitt currently resides in her hometown of New York City.


Amber Holt
Player – Southeastern Illinois

After graduating high school from Meadowcreek in her hometown of Norcross, Georgia, basketball has taken Amber Holt around the world. She has played professionally in the United States, Poland, Israel, Hungary and South Korea. Before beginning her career professionally, Holt began her post-high school career at Southeastern Illinois.

Out of the gate with the Falcons, Holt immediately made her presence felt her freshman season. In her first season with Southeastern Illinois, the Norcross-native averaged a double-double posting 20.3 points per game and nearly 11 rebounds at 10.92 per contest. Then in her sophomore season, Holt raised the bar even higher as she upped her scoring average to 23.7 points per game and still averaged 9.5 rebounds a game. Her performances didn’t go unrecognized as she was named the Great Rivers Area Conference’s Most Valuable Player of the Year, NJCAA Region 24 MVP, All-Conference, All-Region and an NJCAA All-American in both the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons.

In 2006, her play helped elevate the 2006 Falcons squad to a fifth-place finish at the NJCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship.

From there, the two-time NJCAA All-American moved on to play basketball at Middle Tennessee State. Success on the court continued to follow Holt. In the 2006-07 season, she was one of 14 finalists for the USA Pan-American women’s basketball team. In her final season with the Blue Raiders, Holt averaged an NCAA-best 27.3 points per game. Her performance that season surpassed some of women’s basketball’s best such as Candace Parker (21.3 ppg), Angel McCoughtry (23.8), and Maya Moore (17.8).

Following her season to remember with Middle Tennessee State, Holt was drafted by the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun with the ninth overall pick in the 2008 WNBA Draft. Again Holt left a quick impression as she was named to the 2008 WNBA All-Rookie Team. She would go on to play three more seasons in the WNBA, one more with the Sun and two with the Tulsa Shock – now the Dallas Wings.

While just getting started in the WNBA, Holt began planting roots for her career overseas by playing in leagues in various European countries such as Poland, Israel and Hungary. While with Sopron of the Hungarian League, Holt helped contribute to three championships in 2009, 2011 and 2013. She was also recognized through various awards, such as Eurobasekt.com’s Import Player of the Year in 2009, Defensive Player of the Year in 2009 and 2010, and was on the first-team All-Hungarian League squad. In 2013-14, Holt added South Korea to her geographical basketball resume.

Currently the former Southeastern Illinois Falcon resides in Atlanta.


Brett Erkenbrack
Coach – Cloud County (KS)

For 28 years, Brett Erkenbrack has been the head coach for the Thunderbirds women’s basketball program. Entering this season, he boasted a record of 611-260 and a 70 percent win percentage. One of those 611 victories came in the 2001 Division I NJCAA Women’s Basketball Championship Game when Cloud County became the first program from the state of Kansas to win the title.

Erkenbrack’s win total is the best in NJCAA Region 6 women’s basketball history and is good enough for fifth nationally among active coaches. During his tenure with Cloud County, Erkenbrack has turned the Thunderbirds into one of the most prolific NJCAA programs in the Sunflower State. He has helped push his program to 25 or more wins in 14 out of the 28 seasons he has directed the program.

Under his Erkenbrack’s watch, 31 Thunderbirds players have been named to the NJCAA All-Region 6 team, eight players have been NJCAA All-Americans, more than 50 players have moved on to Division I in the NCAA and 100 players in total have gone on to play in Division II at the NCAA level and the NAIA. 

Erkenbrack’s coaching prowess has earned himself numerous coaching awards for his alma mater. In 2000, he was name the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference (KJCCC) Coach of the Year. He has also been named the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association Coach of the Year and NJCAA Region 6 Coach of the Year twice – both in 2001 and 2011. In 2001 – during Cloud County’s run to the national championship – Erkenbrack was named NJCAA National Coach of the Tournament.

Erkenbrack is married to his wife Sonia and they have two sons, Blake and Drew – all of whom have graduated from Cloud County.