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

“Winning is not a sometime thing, it’s an all time thing. You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. — Vince Lombardi

When my wife and I last visited Colorado Springs, our son Robby had a lengthy chat with us about a course he took as part of his efforts to obtain his master’s degree. The focus of the course was ethics in playing, coaching and even watching sports.

Robby’s conclusion was that the conventional wisdom about sports building character for participants unfortunately was bunk. Instead, he suggested that athletics was all about striving to win at all costs, even bypassing moral and ethical considerations. He gave a few examples in his playing and coaching career.

I had this in mind when I learned of the recent firing of Wayland varsity football coach Mike Doupe. Essentially, he was shown the door because he failed to win enough over five seasons.

Before we get out the torches and pitchforks in protest, we must understand that we created this system that judges job performance only by wins and losses. Virtually all other considerations are secondary at best.

Though regarded as a fine family man and pillar of the community, Doupe did not have one winning season in his five years and his team was 0-9 in his final season. His predecessor, Jerry Dioro, went 0-9 in his final season, but this year has led Battle Creek Lakeview to a record of 10-0.

It’s been my experience that most coaches, Diorio included, will win with quality players, but will lose with lack of talent. To be sure, there are some who have been more successful than others over long periods of time.

A closer look at Wayland’s football history shows that the Wildcats have suffered through losing campaigns in 10 of the last 11 seasons. And the one winner, under Diorio, was just 6-5.

This leads me to believe that Doupe isn’t really the problem, he’s a convenient scapegoat. But the nature of sports is that when the team does poorly, you can’t fire the players and the fans demand a winner. So you have to drop the coach, who like the legendary Rocky Bridges, could say in his defense, “I managed good, but boy did they play bad.”

If we, the fans, the people, really cared most about building fine young men and women, fewer coaches would get the ax. The demand for victories in the athletic arenas sometimes can prompt some coaches to bend the rules a bit to gain an edge. Think about recruiting, which is supposed to be verboten in the high schools, but has become commonplace, especially in the wake of “Schools of Choice” legislation.

Wayland hasn’t had a lot of success on the gridiron since Don Japinga graduated in 1962. It’s had an occasional terrific season, particularly in 2002 when it went all the way to state semifinals. But if you examine the results of all of the seasons from 1962 to the present, you’ll find a lot more losses than wins.

My father, longtime coach Wayne Goodwin, mused about 40 years ago that Middleville must have something in the water that Wayland doesn’t. It may be as good an explanation as any. And so where does Wayland go from here?

I was sorry I first reported incorrectly what happened to Doupe because I didn’t know anything until the football banquet. It wasn’t until after I published the story that I was told by sources close to the situation that Doupe insisted the truth be told — he was fired.

The corporate model that has creeped into administering our public schools prevailed: You don’t talk about discharging someone and you say as little as possible because it’s “negative news.” And that sets up a system in which the truth isn’t told.

I was sad that it came to this. I suggest Mike Doupe is a victim of a society that demands a winner above all else.

In the immortal words of Leo Duroucher, “Nice guys finish last.” And we won’t tolerate it.