By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
From almost the time she learned how to walk, Erika Lane Yoder was in a gym, tagging along with her mom, longtime Washburn Rural athletic director Penny Lane, and grabbing a basketball whenever she could to practice her skills.
And Lane Yoder, in her second season as an assistant coach for the Washburn University women’s basketball team, realized early on that athletics were going to be a major part of her life, first as a multi-sport athlete and then as a coach.
“I think I knew when I was little, honestly,’’ Lane Yoder said of her coaching aspirations. “It’s really just been something I’ve always liked doing. When I watched basketball on TV, even when I was little, I would draw things up or if I saw something on TV I would write it down on a sticky note and save it, so I think I’ve always really known I’ve wanted to do that.
“And when I came to the college level and just saw the excitement of it and really putting everything towards basketball, I loved that, so it just kind of reassured that post-athlete life.’’
Former Washburn Rural and Washburn standout Erika Lane Yoder is currently an assistant women's basketball coach for the Ichabods. [Photograph by Rex Wolf]
Lane Yoder earned a total of 12 varsity letters at Washburn Rural in four sports, earning All-Class 6A honors in both basketball and volleyball while helping lead the Junior Blues to three 6A state volleyball championships.
The 2013 Shawnee County female athlete of the year, Lane Yoder went on to play Division I basketball at Tulsa for a season before transferring to Washburn.
She doubled up for a year in both volleyball and basketball for the Ichabods before turning her focus to basketball, where she earned All-MIAA recognition in back to back seasons.
Lane Yoder was a graduate assistant on Ron McHenry’s staff for a season after completing her playing career and then taught and coached at Seaman for a year before landing a job as a full-time assistant for the Ichabods.
The 25-year-old Lane Yoder said she’s learned things through every step of her career that she can draw on as a coach.
“You take something that you learn from every single coach, whether it’s an assistant or a head coach, even student assistants. You can learn from everyone,’’ Lane Yoder said. “Coach Mc is more like a running coach so you learn in that aspect with transition and defensively and of course a lot of other things.
“And when I was at Tulsa it was more of a set offense, so you learn different styles and just different offensive sets that they like and every coach has their own style that they have, so it’s just been really fun, even at the high school level, learning that, too.’’
Lane gives Kevin Bordewick, her volleyball and basketball coach at Rural, a lot of credit for helping start her on the path she took into coaching.
“That was probably where I learned the most,’’ Lane Yoder said. “I know I was a player then, but just learning from (Bordewick) at such a young age of just how to be a player prepared me for the college level and then now coaching with Coach McHenry.’’
Lane Yoder admits that she’s thought about becoming a head coach at some point, but knows that’s down the road.
“I think it’s something that I have in my goal path, but I still have a lot to learn and I’m not in any hurry,’’ she said. “I think it’s always your aspiration to someday work into that, but I’m just trying to learn as much as I can in the role that I am and learn from good mentors here.
“There’s just so much learning and you’re never really done as a coach. You’re always going to learn and I think that’s also the fun thing is you’re never really done. You’re always trying to be a student of the game, so it’s just an awesome career. I can’t believe I get to do this every day.’’
