Stored in an attic somewhere in Mount Holly, large plastic bins hold more than 150 trophies and medals, school-issue uniforms and keepsakes from Erika Hullander’s athletic career. Some high school and college uniforms have been squared and quilted as memory blankets. Ball gloves are tucked away in a special box. “My mom has every single one of them,” Hullander says. “Tons of trophies,” says her mom, Debbie Noblett. “We want to take the plates off the trophies and put them on plaques, then donate the trophies to communities that can’t afford them. We can donate them, and teams can put new nameplates on them.” Hullander, 30, whose sports achievements stretch from recreational leagues to Mount Holly Middle School and East Gaston High School to Belmont Abbey, is adding another honor to her resume as a 2026 inductee into the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame. “Honestly, the thought never crossed my mind of maybe it being me,” she says. “It’s so awesome to be recognized by the city that helped you become the person you are. It’s an honor to be part of something so important and special.” Hullander played five sports at Mount Holly Middle and won an individual award for each – basketball, softball, volleyball, track and soccer.

She was voted Female Athlete of the Year in seventh and eighth grade. She played tennis, basketball and soccer at East Gaston, then added golf, because the roster needed one more. She attended Belmont Abbey on a soccer scholarship and was a walk-on on the tennis team. Her junior and senior seasons were tennis-only. “I was the only one who played five sports in middle school, and for my coaches to feel like I was the one (for Female Athlete of the Year), I felt very honored,” she says. “There were a lot of athletes at our school, and to recognize me meant a lot. I played almost every sport you can think of, that a girl could play. In seventh and eighth grade soccer and track were at the same time, and I wouldn’t even go to some of the practices, just the meets. During middle school I also was playing AAU basketball and travel soccer, so sports was like it didn’t even phase me that I was playing more than one at a time. I was just privileged to be there.” It also meant a lot to be able to develop friendships away from sports, to be someone other than a person in uniform. “When it came to academics, I got to know everybody because I was in the smart classes, too, and not everyone plays sports. I felt like it was a good way for me to make friends,” she says. “No one looked at me differently because I played a sport; they just wanted to be my friend. I had a really good class.”

Hullander – who is 5-foot-1 – says her favorite middle school sport was basketball. “I was a point guard, and I liked the ability of being the one to call the plays. My coaches depended on me a lot,” she says. “I just love basketball.” At East Gaston, Hullander was voted Most Athletic, was the MVP in soccer and tennis, had the most goals on the soccer team and made state playoffs three times, twice for tennis and once for golf. “I played golf my senior year because I knew the coach, and you have to have at least three people and they only had two,” she says. “I may have swung a club a few times when I was younger, and I ended up joining the team and did pretty well. I was always swinging a tennis racket, and golf (season) was during tennis, so after practice I’d go to the range and hit golf balls.” Roster issues also led her to Belmont Abbey’s tennis team. “I was told the tennis team was struggling to have enough girls to have a team, and I was like, ‘You know what? I was the No. 1 seed in high school; I can walk on.’ So me and another girl on my soccer team walked on to the tennis team and played both sports for two years.

Then they wanted a full commitment.” She joined tennis full-time, was team captain as a junior and senior, and went undefeated. “I ended up getting All-Tournament team, which was at the regional tournament versus all the teams in our conference. I was one of three players picked based on my performance in the tournament. I beat a girl who had never been beaten before. Senior year went great for me. It was like a fullcircle moment that all my hard work had paid off.” She graduated in 2018 with a degree in Business Management. Giving back to her community became part of Hullander’s mission. She knows what it’s like to be a little kid trying a sport for the first time – she started with the Mount Holly Recreation Department at age 3, playing soccer, then basketball and added USTA tennis at age 8. “It was like travel ball, where you travel to different tournaments and get ranked, and I was ranked ninth in the state at 12 years old,” she says. So as an adult, she helped the recreation department with the next generation of future athletes.

She stopped when she and her husband Brent had their son, Leo, who turned 2 in May. Hullander is a Loan Portfolio Specialist with RWA Group. She has a brother, Harrison, four-and-a-half years younger. “He’s a trooper for going to every game and every match,” she says. She also credits her parents. Her mom was her first coach, back in her toddler rec league era. “I coached her in soccer; I was her coach at Mount Holly Recreation,” says Noblett, who also is a former athlete. “In this day and time, kids need something to be involved in. I love team sports, because you have a group of friends and it can keep you out of trouble.” Did Hullander inherit her athleticism from her mom? “Most definitely,” Noblett says. “But she gets her speed from her dad, Kipp.” “I would not be here today without the support of my parents,” says Hullander, who stays involved playing adult league sports. “My mom coached me in rec league sports and was always positive. She was very athletic growing up, and I think she enjoyed watching me do what she loved to do, and that has been an encouraging factor in my life. She’s definitely my rock now. I don’t’ know what I’d do without her.”