Former George Jenkins volleyball coach Lisa Bickerton, 54, has died of cancer
Coaches can impact many lives during their careers, and that was certainly the case for Lisa Bickerton during her 30+ years of coaching, including 21 years as head coach at George Jenkins. She had a passion for volleyball and a love for her players that created strong bonds that continued after high school and created a strong support system as she battled cancer in her final years.
Bickerton died on Friday. She was 54.
Bickerton’s love of volleyball, particularly George Jenkins volleyball, is evident in a living room of her home. Former player Katie (Leitner) Fernandez saw the room on a recent visit when she was able to say goodbye to her former coach. The room was dedicated to two of Bickerton’s passions – LEGOs, which Bickerton built, and George Jenkins volleyball.
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“It was incredible,” Fernandez said. “She had a plaque hanging that I gave her in 2007 after my last season to thank her for being such a great coach and for meaning so much to me all these years. She had it hanging. There was so much George Jenkins volleyball memorabilia in that room. I think about how much that meant to her, and it was definitely a two-way street because that’s how much it meant to us. And I loved seeing that room in her house with her when we were able to say goodbye. It was very, very powerful.”
Bickerton’s death hit the George Jenkins High School and Polk County volleyball community hard, as she had touched many lives as a coach and teacher. She developed a bond with many of her players and received respect and admiration from her peers and fellow coaches.
There has been an outpouring of support online, which Lisa’s wife Lea Bicketon says is helping her get through this difficult time.
“I will absolutely appreciate this,” Lea said. “This last week has been very difficult and kind of traumatic. And so I basically have images in my head that like these posts bring back the Lisa that we all knew. They brought so much comfort to me and the rest of her family. We were just so touched that so many people love her so much, and we knew that so many people love her.”
Lea said that she sometimes feels angry and upset knowing that Lisa was only 54 years old and that she feels like Lisa was cheated. Knowing how many lives Lisa impacted has helped her deal with her pain.
“She was such a bright fire that I feel like she had so much more to do,” Lea said. “But then I said, you know, she accomplished so much more in 54 years than most people accomplish in their whole life in a long life. So it’s comforting to me to know that she was able to reach and touch so many people. I mean, basically that’s what we all want. We want to leave a legacy and she left a legacy.”
With 21 years as head coach for George Jenkins, who affectionately calls her “Coach Bick,” she is one of the longest-tenured volleyball coaches in Polk County history, behind Marnee Cobb of Bartow and Robin Wagman of Haines City. But the lives she has touched extend beyond the high school level.
Fernandez said Bickerton had been a part of her life since she was 10. When Fernandez got married in 2018, Bickerton left a volleyball tournament in Orlando to attend the wedding.
“The impact she has had on me is immeasurable, not only on the court but off it as well,” Fernandez said. “I have considered her a close family friend since I was 10 years old when I learned to play volleyball with her. The impact she has had and the lives of the people she has impacted, even after we all graduated from George Jenkins, is amazing. She has left a lasting impression on all of us, not only in our volleyball lives but in our personal lives as well.”
Bickerton supported her players until the end. As her health began to fail, she attended the wedding of former player Kymber Brown-Crowell, now an assistant volleyball coach at Lake Gibson, in July, just before she entered hospice care.
As a sophomore at George Jenkins University in 2018, Brown-Crowell organized a fundraiser to cover Bickerton’s medical expenses after she was first diagnosed with cancer.
“She touched so many lives and I’m just very grateful that I was one of the ones she was able to touch,” Brown-Crowell said. “She cared about her athletes, whether they played for her 20 years ago or whether they played for her last year or last season. She finished what she loved.”
George Jenkins Principal Tom Patton, a former Jenkins baseball coach, saw firsthand the impact Bickerton had on the high school. The two began coaching at Jenkins around the same time and often worked together on various committees.
“What she’s done here with volleyball has been incredible,” he said. “She’s obviously followed Diane (Werrick) and touched a lot of lives in a lot of good ways. This one hurts a little bit, I’m not going to lie. This one definitely hurts. We’re obviously glad she’s out of pain, but people like this don’t come along very often.”
Bickerton grew up in Lakeland and was the eldest of four siblings with three younger brothers.
“She was just always the life of the party,” said Derek Bickerton, who is eight years younger than his sister. “She was the type of person who would make a scene and try to be funny. I remember going to SeaWorld as a kid and there was a pirate show where as part of the show they would get up and try to take somebody away. Lisa would get up and save them. That’s just how she was. She liked to be funny and make people laugh. I think all her kids see that she has very high standards for people. As her brother, I obviously understood that too. And she was pretty quick to tell you if you were going too far.”
Bickerton played volleyball as a seventh-grader at Lakeland Highlands Middle School and graduated from Lakeland High School. She played college volleyball at Florida Community College and one year at Stetson before earning her bachelor’s degree at USF. She began her high school coaching career as an assistant to Werrick, who started the Jenkins volleyball program in 1993 before becoming athletic director. Bickerton took over in 2000.
“When she became head coach, I became one of her biggest fans,” Werrick said. “She continues to strive not only to win and continue a very competitive program, but to see the other side of the kid and not just their athletic talent, but who the kid is. She liked kids and was happy when they had a good time.”
Werrick marveled at how Bickerton was able to build such a strong relationship with her players.
“One of Lisa’s greatest gifts was her ability to relate to children,” Werrick said. “She had the ability to touch them and make them passionate about something they were doing. She was always a teacher first and not just a coach.”
During her time as a coach, Lisa gained the respect, admiration and friendship of her fellow coaches.
“We started as rivals, coaching against each other, and then became friends because we both understood that the game was about the players and their experience,” said Joya Teter, former Kathleen and Lake Gibson coach. “It wasn’t her team against my team. It was the George Jenkins volleyball players against the Lake Gibson players. And she always had her players’ best interests at heart. And that’s the one thing I’ve always admired about her.”
Teter, now a volleyball referee, saw Bickerton at a club tournament in May and could see that the cancer had returned. But she was still the same coach Bick, always with the visor, always with the notebook, clenching her fist when her players did something good, doing what she loved.
“What I liked about her was that she didn’t conform to today’s mentality that the players are always right and you can’t hurt their feelings,” Teter said. “When they made mistakes, she confronted them and held them accountable.”
Bickerton was diagnosed with cancer in 2018 but went into remission. She continued to coach while undergoing chemotherapy before retiring as a high school coach in 2021. She continued to coach club volleyball. When she retired, she told The Ledger how much volleyball and the support of her players meant to her.
“It was very difficult because there were times when I was just sitting there and not really part of what was going on,” Bickerton said in 2021. “I was a part of it, but not really, and the girls supported me the whole time. I think that helped me get through all the chemo and stuff, knowing I could go to volleyball and see my kids. That was really special.”
The cancer returned in 2022 and Bickerton underwent surgery to remove a tumor, but in 2023 the cancer came back. This time, doctors told her that surgery would do more harm than good. She underwent more chemotherapy, but after a few rounds, doctors discovered that the tumors were growing and no longer responding to conventional chemotherapy.
After trying other treatments, the oncologist finally told her she had no other options. Bickerton entered hospice care about 3 1/2 weeks ago.
“One of the things I admired most about her was the fighting spirit she showed as she tried to beat her biggest opponent, cancer,” Werrick said. “Look at how long she kept going under those circumstances. She showed us that it wasn’t her disease that defined her, it was her courage and her strength. And she taught us so much watching her do it. But she had the ability to endure all of that because she loved her family and her athletes. She just kept going, and so many of us wondered why she kept going under those circumstances. And it was her children that she did it for.”
Bickerton was surrounded by her family, including Lea and her children Emilea and Jaden Wilson and her niece Ivy, who raised Lea and Lisa since sixth grade.
A memorial service for Bickerton will be held at 11 a.m. on August 31 in the nave of the First United Methodist Church in Lakeland.
