ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” story. It is an editorial by the editor.

I’m aware this won’t do any good, but I hereby resolutely urge Hopkins boys’ varsity basketball coach Darrin Smith to reconsider his resignation.

His stepping down solves virtually no problems. The community is still reeling and divided. The basketball team is in an awkward position with a new “unbiased” mentor who doesn’t know this team like Smith did. We all saw signs last week that the Vikings were showing a lot of promise on the hardcourt this year, judging by their performances in the first two games.

I understand that Smith didn’t want to put his family through the witch hunt any longer. I was told he made his decision first and foremost as a husband of a Hopkins Middle School teacher and father of two Hopkins students. And indeed, I have no clue about what kind of hell they have gone through as a result of this unfortunate development.

Though I don’t have all of the inside information, it appears the claims made against Smith were unfounded, were misunderstandings and sometimes the result of pure desire for revenge from helicopter parents.

To be sure, Smith failed to produce a winning season in his four years at the helm. But success in wins and losses for Hopkins basketball all these years so often as been a factor of being a football school and lately the culprit has been the league in which it plays.

The team was 6-15 last season and looked horrible in the early going. The Vikings improved near the end to almost pull off a district title.

The O-K Silver Conference last year had two teams that played in the state championship game, Godwin Heights in Class B and Northpointe Christian in Class C. Add perennial hoops power Calvin Christian and you very easily can account for six of Hopkins’ losses.

Hopkins has come a long way from the days of playing smaller rural schools. When it joined the O-K Conference, it signed on to full schedules of opponents, but much tougher competition.

Another claim was that Darrin Smith played favorites and that he practiced nepotism because one of his players was his son. That son was elevated to the varsity as a freshman and is a member of the current team. Though I think he needs serious work on his outside shooting, I am impressed with his rebounding ability, a big asset to a team lacking height against the likes of Calvin and Northpointe.

Furthermore, his son was elevated to the varsity in football last fall as the sophomore quarterback, not by Smith, but by Mick Francis.

The complaining parents saw their son come out on the short end of decisions made by both the basketball and football coaches and he was cut by Smith. Sorry, but deciding on who will play and how much is not done by polling parents and community supporters, but by the person hired to be the coach. That’s part of his job. The buck stops here.

Now that Smith has decided to step aside, I’ll say it again that no problems have been solved. The community remains divided, hard feelings still exist and I think it’s going to take more than a short period to heal.

This has been a sad chapter in the history of Hopkins High School athletics. I am sad to have witnessed it and sad that I had to tell the story.

Good luck to the Viking basketball players and their new “unbiased” coach. I think they’ll need it.