Shaw is one tough ‘Bunny’

MOST kids from Khadija “Bunny” Shaw’s neighbourhood don’t end up at World Cups. Some, like four of her brothers, don't make it to adulthood.

And yet it’s on the rough streets of Spanish Town, a hotbed for gang violence, that Jamaica’s breakout star cut her teeth among the local boys, hoping something might come of her aptitude for anything involving a ball.

That the 22-year-old — youngest of 13 siblings — has now played two games on football’s biggest stage and is readying for a third against Australia belies the tough upbringing of this daughter of a shoemaker dad and chicken farmer mum.

An early appetite for carrots and a formidable pair of front teeth inspired the n i c k n a me “Bunny” from older brother Kent a r d o , who taught his sister how to juggle and convinced their mother football could be a sport for girls.

But even after being discovered by Jamaica’s national federation there was no senior women’s team to aspire to, and she was soon wooed by American universities.

But, while she was at the University of Tennessee, three of Shaw’s seven brothers were killed in gang-related gun violence and a fourth died in a car accident. A nephew was shot dead and another electrocuted.

“My family has been through a lot,” Shaw said.

As one death compounded the next each time she picked up the phone, Shaw considered returning home.

But she realised quitting what she loved wouldn’t make it better. Plus, football was a means of forgetting.

“It has shown me a lot of things,” Shaw said. “It has shown me how to be humble, to respect others. It gives you a chance to lead, it gives you a chance just to be you.”