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Merrilee Kick is Creating a Big Buzz How an ex-Plano high school teacher built a quirky libations brand into a $70 million global enterprise. By Brandon J. Call Published in D CEO December 2020 Photography by Sean Berry | The Nest Images Courtesy of BuzzBallz/Southern Champion On a hot Texas afternoon in the mid-2000s, then-Plano West Senior High School teacher Merrilee Kick was sitting by her pool grading papers when she had a hankering for an alcoholic beverage. How cool would it be, she thought, to sip a cocktail out of a plastic container so she wouldn’t have to worry about breaking a glass bottle? Kick didn’t want to miss out on any pool time, either, so the concoction needed to come pre-mixed and ready-to-drink. She also wanted a beverage that wouldn’t fill her up or make her feel bloated and, most important, it needed to be strong enough to get her buzzed. ....