BV's Bickley determined to get back in the game

When the Lady Lynx basketball team takes the floor this season, they’ll do so without one of the fastest – and most skilled - point guards in the state: Krista Bickley.

The 5-foot-9 junior will ride the bench after sufferingw a non-contact injury to her ACL during a late July scrimmage at the Sioux Falls Pentagon. Just as she has hundreds of times before, Bickley was driving in for a lay-up when she jump-stopped. This time though, the maneuver didn’t end well. 

“I was worried when I couldn’t walk on it. My teammates thought it was my ankle but I knew it was my knee,” Bickley recalls.

Surgery in early August. 

A month and a half on crutches.

Followed by a few more weeks with a brace.

Rehab and exercises. Every day. Multiple times, most days.

It’s the route that Bickley is taking to get her back to the athlete – one of South Dakota’s best point guards and fastest on the track – that she was prior to the injury.

“Rehab is really hard,” she admits. “But this has really made me think how I took this all for granted before. Just jogging or jumping right now would be nice.”

The rehab process involves regaining her quad strength and tackling fundamentals like jumping and proper landing all the while avoiding stress to the muscle.

But Bickley isn’t one to feel sorry for herself. Instead, she’s fiercely determined to overcome the circumstance. 

“Knowing if I haven’t done my best, something’s just off,” she says. “So, I just want to push until I can’t anymore.”

Lady Lynx head basketball coach Mark Stadem describes Bickley as “the ultimate competitor.”

“She is very driven and works tremendously hard at her rehab. She never misses a day and actually does extra,” he says. “That is the way she is and always has been.”

Bickley, he adds, has been one of the players that always stays after practice – every day – to put up some extra shots. 

“She always does more than is required of her,” he adds.

That dedication – and her contributions – the Lady Lynx hoops program as a sophomore will be sorely missed this season. Bickley led the team in steals (75), assists (59) and rebounds (113). She also plunked in 185 points, netting 43 percent from the floor. She was most dangerous at the free throw line, where she hit 75 percent of her shots.

“Krista is one of our best defensive players and kind of runs the show for us,” Stadem said. “She is just a very good basketball player, very even keeled and is one of the best point guards in the state.”

But Stadem says Bickley’s absence is no excuse for the Lady Lynx to go backwards from their stellar 20-6 season last year.

“As much as we hate injuries, they happen and we must continue to play and compete,” he says. “We have a very deep team and some girls are going to have to step up and make plays for us this season.”

After getting a taste of the state tournament last year, Bickley and her teammates have a goal of getting back there this season – and improving on their seventh-place finish. 

“Now that we’ve had a taste of the state tournament, I think all of the girls’ goal is to make it to state again,” she said.  “Obviously I want to be playing, and it’s going to be hard to sit out this season, but everything happens for a reason,” Bickley says.

From the sidelines, Stadem says Bickley has a new role to play this season.

“She will be at practice every day, contributing any way she can,” he said. “We will help her with her rehab any way we can so when she returns to competition this spring, she picks up where she left off.”

And that was quite a place for Bickley to have left off: atop the podium. She collected a plethora of accolades in the 2017 track and field season that included first place in the 200- and 400-meter dashes (possessing state records in both), was runner-up in the 100, and sprinted the anchor leg on BV’s championship 800-meter relay team, all helping the squad to a second-place team finish. She’s also the first Lady Lynx to win Gatorade’s South Dakota Girls’ Track and Field Athlete of the Year in addition to being named Class AA’s track MVP.

As you can see, Bickley is a determined Lady Lynx.

“That’s the goal,” she says. “But if that doesn’t happen, that’s not God’s plan.”