High school coaches generally have the best interests of their players at heart.

Seeing their kids mature and succeed in the games they play now and in the larger game of life are driving motivations for those who enter the profession.

Take Charlie Katsiaficas, who led the Ellsworth boys basketball team to back-to-back appearances in the New England tournament in 1953 and 1954, and in whose name that school’s gymnasium will be dedicated Friday night.

When some of his players didn’t have overcoats to wear to the New Englands, he drew upon his community’s generosity to make sure they were appropriately clad. And during the team’s down time in Boston, he took them to historical sites around the city, fully understanding that those opportunities offered additional teaching moments.

Dana Doran was no less committed to his basketball players at Gardiner Area High School. His disciplined coaching approach had been given significant credit for the Tigers reaching a high point in the program’s recent history, a trip to the Eastern Maine Class A semifinals last winter.

Gardiner returns a veteran team this season led by University of Maine-bound center Sean McNally. But the team is now without Doran as well as one veteran player, for reasons that reflect a sign of the times.

Doran had decided before the season to institute a hair code for his players in the interest of team discipline and team building. He ran the idea by superiors and got the OK.

But then one player objected to having to cut his hair. No doubt it was the player’s right to object, just as back in the day it was the coach’s prerogative to institute such a rule.

But this isn’t back in the day. Legal counsel was sought on both sides, and matters quickly got worse. The player opted not to play, and when the coach learned he didn’t have as much backing from his superiors as he originally thought, he offered a verbal resignation.

At a subsequent school board meeting, teammates, parents and two rival coaches spoke out in support of the coach, but no action was taken and the resignation stands.

There was talk before that meeting about both coach and player possibly returning, but reportedly with a stipulation that there be no reprisal by the coach related to playing time. Sensing a slippery slope growing even more slippery, that likely was the last straw for the coach.

My long-held belief is that playing on such a team is a privilege, not a right. If it was a right, roster sizes would be unlimited, right? I also believe most successful teams are built on sacrifice, and sacrifice learned in youth usually proves beneficial in adulthood.

There is plenty of opportunity for individuality without impinging on others uniting for a common goal.

But schools have athletic codes that govern all sports, and in this modern age virtually any team rule beyond those covered in the school code seem open to similar controversy.

And a random check with several other coaches found that reaching much beyond the athletic code is a fight many choose not to make, particularly those with less seniority.

In the aftermath of the Gardiner controversy, a team plays on with a different coach and a key player missing, and the momentum to be built upon from last year’s success remaining to be restored.

The bottom line is the player should be playing and the coach should be coaching. That neither is the case reflects badly on the environment that shapes our sporting lives.

Ernie Clark may be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or eclark@bangordailynews.net