ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” article. It is an editorial by the editor
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.
Wayland had a great coach when they went to the semifinals in coach Gibson. He left for some reason, maybe for money or was it for because he had no backing from the school board? Whoever they hire next, please tell them not to get too comfy if they don’t install a run-based offense because that is what Wayland needs. Take a look at Hopkins, they have had their ups and downs but they are competitive year in, year out. Shoot, look back at when Hopkins was 2-7 and had their worst record since the ’70s and still Beat Wayland. So good luck to the next coach, if you win 5 games you will be a hero
Really great column, David. With altogether too much truth.
High school sports is more than wins and losses. It’s building character and the coach is the one who does that. Lindy Anderson and Dick Miller were my football coaches in the 1970s, two of the men I respect the most still to this day. We won, we lost, did not matter, we learned to be good sports. That follows you in to your adult life. Mr. Doupe, you seem like that kind of man to me. Good luck and hold your head up HIGH.
I don’t know Coach Doupe, but I have attended games during his tenure. As the editor lamented about high school athletics, life isn’t fair and even more unfair without wins as a coach or producing results as an employee. Coach Doupe knows his tenure was based on progress, and it wasn’t happening.
I know enough about high school football to realize the successful teams have a consistent running game, which in turn opens up the possibility of throwing the ball successfully as well. In all the games I’ve attended, I didn’t see consistency in either running or passing. And many coaches tailor the offense to the personnel, not the personnel to the offense. From what I viewed over the years was the same offense and plays.
Hopkins is successful because they run well and pass sparingly. They run the offense throughout the program and kids are excited to be on a team with a winning tradition. Success begets more success. Wayland hasn’t a winning tradition and won’t until they get a coach that understands how to get kids motivated and believe they can and will run the ball. It’s basic blocking. running, and tackling, nothing fancy, just basic football. But success is just that, doing the basics well and success will usually follow.
However, Wayland will need to offer the Head Coaching job with a teaching or administrative position or forget getting new blood into the program.
The NY Times recently ran a piece, “Players are hurting. Football is too” that discussed how the NFL, owners and players concerned about their game’s future because of the drop in participation. It discussed the injuries football players have and compared those injuries to high school boys playing hockey, wrestling, lacrosse, soccer and basketball. Football doesn’t fare well and the NFL’s surveys show that parents’ concerns are born out by the drop in high school football numbers.
The part of the article that was my “Holy Cow” moment was the drop in high school football participation in a majority of states. Using data provided by state high school sports organizations like the MHSAA, from 2009 through 2018, Michigan has 14% fewer high school players in 2018 than in 2008. The only state with a team in The Big Ten that showed a gain in those 10 years was Pennsylvania, which was up 2%. Every other state showed a loss of high school players with most states showing major football participation drops with Ohio seeing 27% fewer players in the 10 years.
Part of Wayland’s lack of football success is a coaching carousel that is acerbated by the addition of boys soccer and boys tennis becoming fall sports in 2007. The addition of those fall sports can account for some of the drop in boys going out for high school football.
What Wayland has lacked is continuity compared to other local public high schools with football success. Rex Weaver was head football coach at Hopkins for 30 years and had several assistants for nearly his whole time. Current Hopkins coach Cody Francis’ father Mick was a Weaver assistant coach all 30 years.
But those guys are now outliers. Former Wayland coach Jerry Diorio left Wayland after an 0-9 final season to join his former college position coach Elliot Uzelac as an assistant coach at Benton Harbor. They had success, but Uzelac resigned in Jan 2018 after he had some disagreements with the school administration and Diorio resigned his job with Benton Harbor schools in April 2018 to take the Battle Creek Lakeview job. Battle Creek Lakeview’s previous coach won 64 games in his 8 seasons so it wasn’t like Diorio was walking into football talent desert.
Wayland’s next coach needs to be able to get players out for football and impress on all his coaches, from 78ers through jayvees, that participation in games is critical to keep players to continue to go out for football. When Irv Sigler was turning Belding into a team that won a lot of games he also insisted on getting players in as many games as possible. A former customer’s son played for Belding. He got up to second string, never started, but he was on the field for at least a half a dozen plays per game even if was the punt team when leading by three scores for kickoff team after leading by two scores. Sigler wanted to see kids who spent hours training and practicing get their uniforms dirty in games so they could say they played.
I hope Wayland’s new coach gets the players and support he needs to succeed.