There are many lessons that should be taken away from the odyssey that was the Dorothea Epps investigation by the Butler School District.

The biggest lesson: Coaches today — and in particular those at the middle and high school levels — have one of the toughest jobs around.

We’ve started to talk as a community about what that means. But we need to continue this dialogue.

Coaches have to be part school psychologist to know how hard and far they can push their athletes; part administrator to set up and manage all the moving parts involved in any athletic program; and part diplomat to deal with parents eager to see their students perform.

For most coaches, most days, most years, it goes well. Other times not so much.

Four weeks before the 2015-16 season opener, Epps resigned as the girls basketball coach, citing personal reasons.

You can’t blame the coach of 12 years for deciding to step away. Epps felt that parents “painted (her) like a criminal,” by taking allegations, ultimately unfounded, to school board members.

To make matters worse, Epps and district administrators had butted heads in recent months over how the program would be run going forward.

Everyone should look back on the handling of this matter with regret.

School board members expended thousands of dollars on an investigation into non-criminal, non-student-safety-related accusations that could and should have been handled internally.

Parents, their best judgment clouded by a desire to see their children achieve — or perhaps by a dislike of Epps herself — stepped into the role of arbiter of coach-athlete interactions. That’s a place they have no business going unless they firmly believe the mental or physical well-being of their children is in jeopardy.

Some end results: Butler is out a widely respected and fairly successful basketball coach, players missed more than two months worth of practice and spring league play amid the district’s investigation, and the matter clearly has created rifts among parents.

None of those results is a positive thing. Is there anything good that can be salvaged from the wreckage of this situation?

The conversation this seems to have provoked about what it means to coach and participate in high school sports is undoubtedly a good thing.

It would do us all some good to take a step back and consider not just what it means to coach and play high school sports, but what it means to run and fund a high school sports program, and what it means to be the parent of a high school student-athlete.

There’s plenty of research on outcomes associated with yelling at athletes in the huddle; on what effect you’re having as a parent when you scream and throw fits on the sideline at a game; and how sports department budgets are affecting school districts throughout the country.

Ultimately, though, sports are an exercise in community involvement. We have to decide what we want, will allow, and are willing to pay for when it comes to students, parents, coaches and the programs to which they dedicate their time and effort.

Those are places where this conversation should go. And it shouldn’t cost another $20,000 and the services of a capable and dedicated coach to take it there.