As the offensive team waits to load the bus, coaches and players talk about school, the future and what ever social life most will have after spending over an hour just getting to and from practice every day.

The luxury of walking from the lockerroom to the football field is something that this generation of North Miami senior high players know nothing about. They have never experienced the feeling you get from seeing your friends pass by to watch practice to check out what the team will be like.

For the past three years, Pioneer football has lived out of a bus, traveling two and three miles to just to get to practice and elementary school fields with no comforts of having a real place to call home.

From Leonard Graham to Horrane Allison to current coach Darryel Bethune, North Miami has lived a Spartan life and a lot has been asked of a football program to just survive.

While the Pioneers were forced out of their practice field to make way for construction of the new middle school for two seasons, there was always the future, when a new high school would be built with the best weight room, playing field and training facility. But while that future was talked about, this program lost potential athletes who didn't want to make the sacrifices.

FUTURE IS NOW

As many talked about the future and keeping those quality athletes at home, several opted to head to private schools and other public high schools with the idea that the future was now for most of them.

While the coaches and athletes worked hard to improve and give this program a foundation to build on, another year passed with the team having no place to practice. Last year, as construction began on the new high school, and the new middle school sitting next to the original North Miami High, the Pioneers were once again saddled with three straight years of being on the road.

``It was frustrating, but a sacrifice that had to be made,'' said senior receiver Fredson Salomon. ``We knew that those who stayed around would bond together and the team would get better.''

After years of struggling to win football games, the Pioneers began to turn the corner in the spring when Bethune was hired to take over the program. With a win over Edison in the spring, there was finally some hope that there was indeed some light at the end of a tunnel that has remained dark for many years.

While the Pioneers have never been considered a powerhouse among programs in Miami-Dade County, they have been able to produce their fair share of quality football players, and with Bethune on board, many believe that this is the start of bringing that program back to some respectability.

``It's tough to come in and turn it all around just like that,'' Bethune said. ``What needed to be done is to get back on campus and start to make small strides and build from there.''

As the North Miami's new school opened last week, the first step in getting things back on track started to unfold. Yes, they are still practice some three miles away, but with a state-of-the-art weight room and football facility, and a practice field that should be ready by October, the building blocks are at least in place.

For athletes such as Salomon, and fellow seniors David and Daniel Lozandier, receiver Jeffrey Wright, linemen Zephyr Jean and Doug Almendares and running back Jimmy Grant, there is some small satisfaction that all have been able to stick with this drawn out process and three head coaches in three seasons.

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