BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — It started back in November 2019. . .the Bakersfield Christian Eagles were playing for a CIF Central Section championship.
Senior Temi Sule would go up for a block that would seal the first girls volleyball section title in three years.
“I don't remember like happening it just happened I was like, it was just all weird for me,” Temi said.
More than a year later in the middle of June another Sule was leading her team to a championship.
This time it was Dami, leading the Eagles to the school’s first ever girls basketball Southern California Regional title in her senior year behind a 37 point and 29 rebound performance.
With a familiar cheerleader on the sidelines.
“I heard actually her voice like the third quarter I think that's when like we were kind of get in that jump in the game,” Dami said.
“It was just an ‘ahh’ moment for me as an older sister, to see that she was doing so well she's just a beast and I just love watching her,” Temi said.
Temi was the first daughter in the Sule family and not even two years later would come Dami. Two young girls bonded by family but also connected through sports.
“Always something that you're always reaching for, you know, like goals to beat records to meet,” Dami said.
“I really just appreciate how we had the opportunity to play sports growing up,” Temi said.
A family raised on sports as it started with soccer, although hoops was the beginning of this sister duo at BCHS.
“Her sophomore year, my junior year playing basketball, that was so much fun,” Temi said.
“I mean we didn't make it that far, but it was the dream team, you know, everyone worked together we worked really well,” Dami said.
“We really did,” Temi said.
“That was like kind of like my upcoming moment, as a basketball player,” Dami said.
There may be a lot of competition between these two but they also share a lot of laughs.
“People around us always tell us we're goofy but I just think that's just how we are,” Temi said.
Except when the game starts.
“We leave all the funny stuff off the court, it's business when you walk on the court. Right?,”Temi asked her sister.
“Yeah,” Dami said with a smile.
While they have a lot in common, leaving a legacy at their alma mater may be the most remarkable.
“We do a lot of things together we fight a lot. We laugh a lot but it's just, just knowing that we both did this together. Each had left our own personal mark here at this school it's amazing,” Dami said.
“We've had to break through like so many types of like hardships or like learning from our mistakes and getting better. So, to see our names up there, it really like proves to us that we worked really hard to get there,” Temi said.
Even if it happened in two different season and on two different courts, the Sule sisters still achieved their goals together.
“Me being there when she was winning, you know, kind of give her some type of boost, I know she's talking about how she loved just like she could just hear that, you know, my energy just like reciprocating out in the court,” Dami said.
“It's just really cool because we can say like we did this together like she was there, and I was there, I'm just happy that I was able to be that guide for her and the sports,” Temi said. “But also she's made her own impact in a way like it's just really powerful to see how far she's come.”
Both remembered at BCHS forever.
“You know they are going to see two Sule sisters I wonder how good they were,” Dami said.
I’d say pretty darn good.
