Bonding with band-aids
- Updated: December 12, 2014
Anniston girls basketball players display unity under their left eye
Ki-Yana Bullock (L), Jemya Bullock (C) and Raven Cooley display their team unity with band-aids under the left eye. It was an idea Jemya and Cooley floated earlier this year and it quickly spread through the team.
“We put it on not because we have a scar. We put it on to put fear into the opposing team’s heart.”
— Anniston junior Jemya Bullock
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
LINCOLN — The players on Anniston’s girls basketball team took the floor for pregame warm-ups here Thursday night and looked like they had been in a scrape before they even got to the gym. Several had band-aids on to their cheek, just below their left eye.
Was there a fracas on the bus riding over to the game? Did the bus hit a big bump throwing all the players on their head? Not to worry. All was well.
The Lady Bulldogs are stuck on band-aid as a symbol of their team unity and a not-so-subtle reminder of the goal to inflect the maximum amount of misery on their opponent as possible.
“We wear the band-aid to show how strong our sisterhood is,” said Jemya Bullock, the junior post who started the tradition. “When we get on the court in practice we practice harder. The band-aid shows our aggressiveness. We put it on not because we have a scar; we put it on to put fear into the opposing team’s heart.”
As the legend of the Bulldog band-aid grows, so does its mythology. Some believe it has its roots in an homage to the late TLC hip-hop artist Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, but Bullock debunk the notion.
“It’s just a representation on how I feel about my team,” she said. “Because, like a band-aid, we stick together.”
“We have a bond so strong that nobody can break it,” emphasized senior forward Ki-Yana Bullock.
The tradition has a chance to live on beyond this year, too, as Jemya Bullock and Raven Cooley are both juniors and return next season.
Anniston coach Eddie Bullock is OK with it; anything that fosters team bonding is fine by him. And it’s obviously working.
In the midst of trying to make their way following NeNe Bolton’s departure to the college game and find their own identity, the Lady Bulldogs improved to 6-1 after overrunning undermanned Lincoln Thursday night and are currently ranked sixth in the state 5A girls.
“It’s a little bonding thing they do,” he said. “One of my nieces had been doing it the whole season and she had some of the other ones do it and I looked up in practice and all of them had it on. It’s a bonding thing and I let them have fun.
“I love it. They did it. It was original. That’s their little swagger.”
You must be logged in to post a comment Login