Counting up his years as football, track and basketball coach and adding his last two years as assistant softball coach, Vidalia High’s Dee Faircloth figures he’s spent more time on a school bus than he has in his car.

&uot;Everybody laughs when I come walking out of the dressing room onto to the bus with my three pillows,&uot;&160;Faircloth said. &uot;But sitting on those seats can wear on you.&uot;

As most any coach can tell you, it’s not exactly like riding Greyhound.

&uot;Father (John) Brock went down to Christian Life with us last year and he said one of the things we could do over here was buy some shocks for our buses,&uot; Faircloth said.

Which makes it especially tough on those riding in the back. Faircloth, following a particular incident, began to sit in the back of the bus.

&uot;We went somewhere one night in the early ’70s and when we got back I thought everything was fine,&uot; Faircloth said. &uot;But then the band director came up to me and told me one of our boys was mooning the band bus. After that I’ve always sat in the last seat to keep the ‘mooners’ in front of me.&uot;

Another veteran of bus rides is longtime football coach Bobby Marks, who has had stints at Huntington, Cathedral, Thomas Jefferson and Adams County Christian School.

Marks said bus rides can lead to superstitions.

&uot;Back when I coached at ACCS we did not have a North or South Division, we had to play everybody,&uot; he said. &uot;We were going up to Clarksdale so we rented a chartered bus. We stopped in Vicksburg and one of our big lineman got three hamburgers. We had already planned on stopping up the road to eat something. Well, we ended up stomping Clarksdale, so every time we went that way we would stop in Vicksburg and then up the road to eat.&uot;

Marks said he could gauge the importance of the road game by assistant coach Charles Kennedy.

&uot;Charlie would always have either one or two cans of dip in his pockets,&uot; Marks said. &uot;When we went up to play the state championship game (in 1982), I had my head back and I asked Charlie how many cans did he have. He told me four.&uot;

Chad Lipscomb played football, baseball and basketball at Cathedral and is now head baseball coach at Adams County Christian School.

&uot;I remember when I was a freshman and sophomore how Lawrence Alwood, Tony Harris and Lee Campbell would try to outdo each other cutting each other down,&uot;&160;Lipscomb said. &uot;They would see who could come up with the best line. And then in basketball, it didn’t matter how late it was or if everybody was dead asleep,&160;Tony would scream out an animal noise out of the blue and wake up everybody.&uot;

Lipscomb has only been coaching two years, so doesn’t have many tales to tell as a coach.

&uot;One time in junior high football I got fed up with all the noise and had them put on their helmets and put their mouthpieces in their mouth,&uot; he said. &uot;And it never fails that somebody is going to forget a hat, glove or uniform. And I know I have a lot more to look forward to.&uot;

Natchez High coach Elbert &uot;Mo&uot; Lyles experienced bus riding as a football player at South Natchez and Mississippi College. He coached at Wilkinson County High before taking over at Natchez.

&uot;I don’t want any part of them,&uot;&160;Lyles said of buses. &uot;They are uncomfortable. They are not built for a football team because of the space of seating.&uot;

The most difficult part is long trips to the Gulf Coast or to north Mississippi.

&uot;If we go long distances, we try to make pit stops at places like parks,&uot; he said.

Cathedral’s Ken Beesley has coached it all, so he has quite a few bus trips under his belt. Fortunately, the recent acquisition of a new school bus has made road trips a little more bearable.

&uot;We ran out of gas a couple of times in the old bus because the gauge wasn’t working and the tank wasn’t as big,&uot;&160;Beesley said. &uot;We were coming from Jackson and ran out just outside of Fayette. I had to send somebody into Fayette to bring us back some gas.&uot;

Beesley remembers back in 1982 when he missed the final week of practice because of pneumonia.

&uot;The doctor told me I could go to the game as long as I went in a car,&uot; he said. &uot;We were playing at Salem. We beat them in overtime. We had a kid eating after the game in McComb and he was standing around the bus and just fell out. Coach (Roy) Garcia had him checked out there and he had to go with him to Jackson. I ended up having to drive the bus back at two in the morning when I wasn’t even supposed to be on it.&uot;

Beesley remembers a scary incident coming back from Bogue Chitto. &uot;I hard something flap and then saw a piece of rubber going down the road,&uot; he said. &uot;We went a couple of hundred yards more and another piece of rubber flew off.&160;All of a sudden the rightfront tire blew out. I saw it rolling down the road on its rim. I was coming up to a bridge so I couldn;t stop. I had to go across the bridge before pulling over. And of all the times, (wife) sue was on the bus, sitting right over the tire. We ended up calling Arthur (Eidt) outside of Bude to bring us a tire.&uot;

Beesley said he used to use the time on a road trip to prepare for a game.

&uot;Kids can’t concentrate that long anymore,&uot; he said. &uot;Our new bus is air conditioned, where as the hold bus was hot and sweaty.&uot;

But relaxing may not always be the best idea.

Faircloth remembers sweating out one particular trip to McCall where assistant coach Tommy Lanius had to drive through the gate, and the memorable trip to Lake Providence.

&uot;It was always exciting to go to Lake Providence,&uot; Faircloth said. &uot;We walked into the dressing room and one of the players asked me what the holes were in the window. I told him they were bullet holes. They were on pins and needles after that.

&uot;When we were leaving the stadium and we were going down a darkened street that has a hundred alleyways. That’s where buses have gotten rocked lots of times and windows busted. So I told the guys to put their helmets on and heads down. As we were coming down the street I saw a head pop up because some of them were thinking I was just telling a story and nothing was going to happen. Just about that time, a big old brick hit the side of the bus. I didn’t have a problem with them keeping their heads down after that. As a matter of fact, they kept their heads down for 30 minutes until we got to Tallulah.&uot;

But overall most trips are routine.

&uot;I used to have a youngster who played for me who always had to tell hunting and fishing stories,&uot; Faircloth said. &uot;I&160;got on the bus once and told him I don’t want to hear any stories from anybody. That lasted about a mile. Of course I’ve been known to tell a few war stories.&uot;

Faircloth said he has actually had teams that played better on the road.

&uot;It wasn’t long ago I told them on home games I was going to get the bus and drive down to the Dodge Store and come back so they would feel like they were on a trip.&uot;