There was no reason for Aliquippa to fire Mike Zmijanac as its head football coach.

Then again, there doesn’t have to be.

Any school board can dump any coach at any time. Just get enough board members to carry the vote, slap it on the agenda of an upcoming meeting and follow through.

Done deal. No explanation necessary.

There have been a number of cases where Butler County coaches have been ushered out for no apparent — at least, not publicly disclosed — reason.

Joe Lewandowski’s name comes to mind. So do Dorothea Epps, Clyde Conti, Cecil Blauser and Randy Armagost, to name a few.

Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic boys basketball coach Dave Long recently had to miss a game while some type of inquiry was going on about him — and he’s been there for decades.

Upper St. Clair and North Hills tried to oust football coaching legends Jim Render and Jack McCurry, only to be thwarted by public outcry and protests.

But this Zmijanac ouster is baffling, indeed.

All this guy’s done is take his team to 10 consecutive WPIAL championship games. He won six WPIAL titles and a state crown. He won 237 games while losing only 36 in 21 seasons.

And the man did all that with Aliquippa playing in a higher enrollment classification. This is a Class A school — one of the smaller ones in Western Pennsylvania. Can you imagine what the Quips would do to Class A foes on a football field?

We’re talking about a total dismantling under those circumstances.

The only reported criticism of Zmijanac is that he didn’t do enough to get Aliquippa players into college football.

Seriously?

What’s the guy supposed to do?

He talks to college recruiters about his players. He’s sent kids to Division I schools and some to the NFL.

Parents view football as a “way out” of an economically-depressed area for their kids. I can respect such wishes, but it’s up to the kid to be coachable and work hard enough to make that happen.

That’s not up to the coach.

Goodness knows, plenty of college coaches pay attention to Aliquippa games. They know who’s there.

Zmijanac is in his 70’s and reportedly only wanted to coach another year or so. It’s a shame a guy with his pedigree had to go out the way he did.

Then again, it’s a shame this sort of ouster has to happen to any high school coach.

If high school coaching wasn’t considered a thankless profession before, it has to be considered that way now.

There’s not one prep coach I’ve dealt with who doesn’t have a genuine passion for helping kids. For the vast majority of them, that passion comes before winning.

Such passion deserves better.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle