Ruth Bicking wanted to show her students another side of herself. That’s how an English teacher who didn’t play sports turned into a coach.
Instead of poetry club or yearbook, extracurricular activities that more closely matched Bicking’s background, she applied for the JV field hockey opening.
When Bicking was granted an interview, she assumed it was a courtesy.
“I have no idea why,” she said, “but I got the job.”
It was the start of an unexpected sports journey. Bicking spent more than two decades on Pequea Valley’s sideline and will be one of four inductees into the Lancaster-Lebanon League Hall of Fame this week.
Coaching afforded Bicking, who never suited up for an organized team, all the enjoyment that athletics can bring.
“I fell in love with the whole idea of working together,” Bicking said, “and building a comradeship through a family that solves a problem.”
Bicking knew nothing about field hockey at first. She leaned on head coach Joann Kramer to learn the basics. Things like where the players should stand on the field and what were their responsibilities.
There were some growing pains in those early days. Maybe even a few embarrassing moments.
“I couldn’t do anything,” Bicking said. “I tried to blow a whistle and I had my hand over the hole. I was a complete disaster.”
Progress came faster than Bicking expected. Three seasons after she chose to dive headfirst into sports, Kramer left Pequea Valley and Bicking was elevated to varsity coach.
The field hockey novice poured hours of her free time into learning everything she could about the game. She went to camps and clinics. She bought books. She studied the strategy of opposing coaches and learned to implement it for her side.
Bicking guided Pequea Valley to a District Three championship and a second-place finish in the PIAA tournament in 1975. It was her third season as head coach.
By that point, she was hooked. Coaching was part of her.
“She might not have known as much field hockey strategy or how to teach skills or whatever,” rival coach Lee Gerdes said. “But she certainly knew how to motivate kids and get them to see the bigger picture.”
Gerdes witnessed that first-hand when she was coaching at Conestoga Valley. One season, the Buckskins needed to beat Pequea Valley in the final game to qualify for the playoffs.
Pequea spent an inordinate amount of time on the bus before that matchup. When the Braves finally exited, Gerdes said it was like they were “shot out of a cannon.”
CV didn’t make the playoffs that year and Bicking has never revealed to her friend what she said to inspire the girls that day.
Bicking became a mentor to coaches like Gerdes and was a founding member of the L-L League coaches association. Her voice was often heard away from the field.
“I can remember going to those meetings,” Gerdes said. “She was so wise. She looked at things differently than those of us who came out of living our life in a gym. It brought a freshness and a different way of thinking.”
The 1975 team remained Bicking’s most accomplished. Although another group never won a district title or reached a state final, each was special to the coach.
Pequea Valley’s field hockey program was eliminated after the 2018 season. There was a shortage of players once girls soccer moved to the fall. It was a crushing blow for the woman who steered the Braves for so long.
“I went through a period of extreme grief when it happened,” Bicking said.
Bicking served as varsity coach from 1972 through 1990 and ran the junior high until 1994. She worked briefly as a basketball coach from 1969-71.
The Hall of Fame ceremony will be at Manheim Township prior to the L-L League girls basketball final Friday at 7 p.m. Being part of a group that also includes Jeff Roth, Ray Stern and Norbie Danz is an honor Bicking never could have imagined.
Bicking’s field hockey knowledge grew every season she worked as a coach. The movement of the players began to make sense to her. She could sense when someone was about to score a goal.
“When you see things happening way down the field that you know are gonna turn into something really powerful, that’s nice,” the former English teacher said.
For Bicking, goals and assists became as magical as rhymes and sonnets.
“That,” she said, “was my poetry.”
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