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Sheryl Estes

Four of the 2024 inductees grew up in small Texas Panhandle towns, none smaller than Mobeetie where Estes played every sport and knew by the seventh grade she wanted to coach. After running track for a year at Texas Tech, she transferred to play basketball at West Texas State under Bob Schneider in the early 1980s.

Shortly after graduation, she coached for two years under Joe Lombard at Canyon, and took away much from those coaching legends. After one year as a high school coach, Estes interviewed for the Wayland Baptist University women’s job, and at the age of 28, she was hired. From 1989-96, Estes coached Wayland to the NAIA national tournament six times and the national title game in 1992. In six years, WBU was 183-62.

For two years, she was NAIA president and on the USA Basketball Selection Committee. At the 1996 Final Four, the American Basketball League announced plans for a new professional women’s league. Estes used her contacts to become head coach of the Colorado Xplosion, leading the team to the playoffs in the second and final year of the league.

That led to another start-up coaching job at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, which was starting a new Division I program in 1998. Everything was new, but she compiled a 46-35 record, noteworthy for a beginning program.

Estes decided to step away from coaching and into business. For the last 11 years, she has been co-founder/owner of boxLIFE, which converts shipping containers into a unique tailgate experience for a variety of events. The business is based out of Austin.