All-CVa: Bickers, Patriots a perfect fit

By Chip Knighton

Published: July 3, 2008

Carroll Bickers’ coaching career has been filled with surprises — especially the last two years.
Although it didn’t seem like it at the time, it was a serendipitous twist of fate that brought the 2008 All-Central Virginia baseball coach of the year together with his overachieving Albemarle team. And while the Patriots’ season ended on their bus rather than on the diamond, the foundation is set for a return trip to the state tournament.
Albemarle navigated its way through the Commonwealth District tournament and kept winning before running into the wrong side of a VHSL ruling in the Group AAA quarterfinals.
A controversial decision to call the Patriots’ matchup in favor of opponent James River due to darkness ended their season, but a team with just one returning starter and six seniors had made its mark on Central Virginia — and
rejuvenated its coach.
“You could say it was a pleasant surprise,” Bickers said. “We started out knowing that we were very young and very inexperienced. We set some lofty goals, but the most important was one game at a time.”
Bickers built his coaching reputation at Charlottesville High before leaving under less-than-happy circumstances after the 2007 season. He wasn’t unemployed for long when Albemarle football coach Rick Vrhovac asked him to join his coaching staff.
Soon after, the Patriots needed a new baseball coach to replace Greg Maynard, and Bickers fit the bill.
“Did he fall into our lap? We were just thankful for him to cross paths with us,” said Albemarle athletic director Deb Tyson. “He fit our needs and we fit his needs just right.”
Bickers prefers not to discuss his departure from CHS, choosing instead to focus on happy memories from the school and his new charges at Albemarle.
“I did not want to leave Charlottesville,” he said. “That’s all I’m going to say about that. … I had some great folks there, and I cherish that.”
With Charlottesville in the past, Bickers’ first task as the Patriots’ skipper was to rebuild the team’s coaching staff. He kept holdover Jeff Rohm, who he installed as third base coach, and brought on a pair of varsity newcomers in first base coach Sam LeBeau and dugout coach and “computer guy” Darren Lynch.
“It was a unique situation where I did not know a lot of the players,” Bickers said. “It’s easy to come in and get rid of some folks, but you’ve got to hire some folks. I thought the best interest of the program was to pick their brains. They were a little buffer at the new school. They knew the kids, and that helped.”
Albemarle peaked at the right time but had plenty of nail-biters ahead. The Patriots eked out close wins over Riverbend and North Stafford in the first two rounds of the Commonwealth tournament before beating Mountain View 13-3 in the final.
Northwest Region tournament road wins against Halifax County and Potomac followed before the abridged 5-4 loss to the Rapids ended the Patriots’ season.
“Quite obviously, we were very disappointed,” Bickers said. “It was like a little sting. But as far as the season we had overall, as the kids reflect back, it was a great run. We won some close ball games and it was very exciting for us. This group was a pleasure to coach — they put a lot of folks ahead of themselves and a lot of things ahead of themselves to get where they are.”
Bickers’ boss says he deserves more credit for the season than he cares to admit.
“You never know why teams are successful,” Tyson said. “Anyone around sports knows it’s not about talent. Not to take anything away from this team — they were talented — but they had a chemistry you wanted to bottle up and keep. Coach Bickers gets a lot of credit for that.”
Bickers still thinks about that game against James River where his team came up one run short against the eventual state champions. While he wishes his players had gotten the 2 1/2 innings they were due, he’s grateful for the latest, most unexpected chapter in his long career.
“Some coaches get to experience a lot more than other coaches,” he said. “When you get a run like that, I think the journey we had was a lot more important than the end result. That’s what I live for as a coach.”