Volleyball Team, Community Come Together To Support 'Coach Bick'

LAKELAND, FL -- For 18 years, Lisa Bickerton has served as coach, confidante and counselor for hundreds of girls on the George Jenkins High School volleyball team.

“In her many years of coaching and teaching, she has touched so many lives and they are better for her influence,” said Sherry Hall, whose granddaughter, Kymber Brown, is on the volleyball team.

“She’s a legend at George Jenkins,” said Andy Bosko, a 2000 George Jenkins graduate and co-owner of two local Beef O’ Brady’s restaurants with his father, Don. “In 18 years, she’s impacted the lives of a lot of kids.”

So, when the tables were turned and “Coach Bick” was the one in need, players, parents and members of the community didn’t hesitate to support her the only way they could: with prayers and financial support.

Bickerton, 48, was diagnosed with Stage 3 ovarian cancer on June 21 and is currently undergoing chemotherapy.

Upon learning of her diagnosis, the volleyball team set up a Facebook page, Together We Fight, #CoachBick,and promptly began organizing fundraisers to offset her medical expenses.

Bosko was among the first to step forward to help, offering to host a Spirit Day event at his South Lakeland restaurant.

“I have a few staff members who had her as a coach and I remember her well from my high school days,” said Bosko. “So when Sarah Case from the Lakeland Kiwanis Club reached out to us, I didn’t hesitate. I was just grateful that I could do something for her when she needs it the most.”

Students, parents and friends packed the restaurant on Spirit Day, Aug. 9, at the Beef O’ Brady’s at Lake Miriam Plaza, with 15 percent of the sales going to Bickerton.

Additionally, at the Eagles’ first home volleyball game Tuesday, Aug. 21, Don and Andy Bosko surprised Bickerton with a $1,000 check.

Students are doing their part as well.

Kymber Brown ordered bracelets printed with the coach’s name and the slogan they’ve adopted for her battle, "Together We Fight.”

The players have sold more than 600 bracelets and raised more than $2,000 for Bickerton.

The team is now working on organizing additional fundraisers.

In between surgery and chemotherapy, Bickerton continued to oversee volleyball tryouts and coach this year's team. She said she fell in love with the game as a seventh-grader at Lakeland Highlands Middle School.

She went on to play in high school and on a scholarship at South Florida Community College in Avon Park and at Stetson University in 1990 where she still holds a school record for 364 digs.

While in college, she discovered she loved coaching the sport as much as playing it.

Bickerton assumed the role of head coach of the Eagles in 2001 and took the team to the state tournament in 2012.

She said she can’t imagine doing anything else, and she certainly wasn’t going to let surgery and chemotherapy prevent her from attending the season’s opener.

However, she didn’t expected to be greeted at the game with such an outpouring of support.

Images via Facebook

From left are Don Bosko, Lisa Bickerton and Andy Bosko.

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