GLASGOW — The Glasgow High School football team finished the 2008 season 0-11. The winless season did cost the head coach his job.

When Billy Lindsey resigned he said the right thing. He said he wasn’t forced to quit by administrators in the school district. I like Billy and consider him a friend, but I didn’t believe him when he told me he resigned of his own accord on his own terms. I believe he said then what was the right thing to say in order to allow the program to move forward without an anchor of negative emotion holding back the players.

Unfortunately, his words were not enough to stop the drama for the two months that followed his resignation. There were many people interested in the outcome of the coaching search because there are many who believe the class of incoming sophomores can accomplish great things during their athletic careers at GHS. They just need the right leadership from the head coach in each sport in order to lead Glasgow athletics to the promise land — where ever that may be.

What ensued was a search that was clouded by meddling from members of the school district and public. From my perspective, there were no white hats in this process — except for perhaps the members of the volunteer committee who were asked to aid in the search and whose initial selection was ignored.

But let’s for a moment suspend the argument about who was right and who was wrong. Let’s drop judgement on what was the right and wrong decision. Let’s forget names. Let’s forget positions of those involved both in the district and in our community at large.

Let’s forget we are living in Glasgow, Barren County, Kentucky, but don’t forget that we are living in America where losing is not an option.

In our culture that exists all the way down to 5-year-old T-ball and in every other corner of our nation, we hear the stories of winners. We tell each other the stories of winners.

If I ask someone in this area what’s the first thing that comes to their mind with 1968, there’s a high chance they will say, “Glasgow Scotties state championship.” That was 41 years ago and there are still people who talk about it like it happened yesterday.

There is nothing like winning, especially winning a state title.

All coaches, all players and all fans should demand nothing less than winning at the highest level. That demand should go further than the athletic field. It should extend into our community as a whole. We should demand nothing less than the best effort of our community leaders. We should demand that they not rest until they’ve won at bringing more and better jobs to our community. There are many things that must be improved in our community.

(Don’t get me wrong, there are many things done well in this area, look no further than Friday night’s Relay for Life. Of course, the concept is based on the competition to see which Relay team can raise the most money for a great cause.)

But if members of the public don’t believe our community leaders are doing their best, we shouldn’t sit on the sideline mealy-mouthing. We should encourage them to do better and if they don’t or can’t, then we must find leaders who can and will.

The world is competitive and we must compete for jobs, for services, for all things a thriving and growing community need.

The ugly side of competition comes from two fronts: Those who sit on the sidelines and never get involved and never have anything encouraging to say and those who get involved in ways that are selfish and undermine the process in place.

I’ll admit I’ve been guilty of both during my lifetime, but I hope to do better and I hope the same for us all.

After all the talk of winning, I leave you with the other side of sports:

WRENTHAM, Mass. — It took 101 innings, there were 687 runs scored, and 817 children participated.

The players of the Wrentham Youth Baseball/Softball Association between the ages of 5 and 15 played 36 straight hours of ball over the weekend, raising an estimated $75,000 for charity.

The event, billed by organizers as the world’s longest baseball game, began at 8:01 a.m. Saturday and ended at 8:01 p.m. Sunday.

Coordinator Jim Lucas says the post-game handshake took about 10 minutes.

The money, which was still being counted Monday morning, will go to a number of charities, including Curt’s Pitch for ALS and the March of Dimes.

The top fundraisers get to attend a lunch with former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling.

The final score was Away 348, Home 339.

James Brown is editor of the Glasgow Daily Times. He can be reached by e-mail at jbrown@glasgowdailytimes.com.