Community Corner

Activity Bus Driver Doubles as Aberdeen High Super-fan

Today, Janeice Faison will drive the girls basketball team to the University of Maryland Baltimore County to play in the MPSSAA 3A state semifinal.

Janeice Faison doesn’t remember the last time she missed an Aberdeen High School playoff game.

She rides with—or supports—all the school’s sports teams, and the teams ride with her, literally.

Faison drives the bus that takes most student athletes to and from their games. Today, she’ll drive the girls basketball team to the University of Maryland Baltimore County to play in the MPSSAA 3A state semifinal.

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The Lady Eagles play the Largo High School Lady Lions at 7 p.m.

 “I haven’t missed any playoff games, girls or boys, no matter what sport,” Faison says. “I’ve been driving for the teams for 15 years. But I’ve been driving a bus for 21 1/2 years.”

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Supporting school sports is more than a job for Faison. It’s a joy, she says.

“I love being around the kids,” Faison says. “A lot of them, I’ve known since they were babies. I feel like a second mother to most of them.”

Fasion, 57, can relate because her own son, Charles Faison, graduated from Aberdeen High School in 2000. He played quarterback and she still dons his No. 12 jersey at playoff time.

Faison says her immediate supervisor, Leonard Ciufo, has made it possible for her to follow the teams.

“I’m a bus driver first because that’s my job,” she says. “I’m a super-fan second.”

The winner of today’s Aberdeen-Largo game will advance to the state finals on Saturday and make the return trip to UMBC to play the winner of the Frederick-Howard game for the state championship.

Faison, of course, hopes the Lady Eagles go all the way.

“These girls deserve it,” she says. “They worked hard for it.”

Not to add to the pressure, though, Faison says:  "Once they do their best, put their best foot forward and play as a team, that’s all you can ask of them.”


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