Iowa Hawkeyes Among Those Saddened By Ed Thomas Shooting

It's 111 miles from Iowa City to Parkersburg, Iowa, but sometimes the two places seem a lot closer. Today there's no distance whatsoever. Ed Thomas, legendary coach of the Aplington-Parkersburg High School Falcons, was shot and killed by one of his former players Wednesday morning.

While Thomas sent his players to a wide variety of colleges and other walks of life, the connections between Aplington-Parkersburg and the University of Iowa go deep. Countless Falcons have gone on to become Hawkeyes; several of those players have made the leap to the NFL. The list includes Green Bay's Aaron Kampman, Detroit's Jared DeVries, and Denver's Casey Wiegmann. That's not bad for a pair of towns whose population adds up to less than 3,000 people.

As might be expected, many of Coach Thomas's former players feel a great loss. Some of Thomas's best-known players have shared their feelings -- as best as they can -- with the world.

Jared DeVries was one of the first Falcons to make it to the NFL. This is what he had to say in a statement Wednesday:

"Aside from my own father and mother, no one had a more profound impact on my life than Coach Thomas. He truly was like a second father to me and to the hundreds of players from our community he coached over the years.

"A part of him has been with me through my college and NFL careers and that will never change. I will never forget Coach Thomas. Heaven just got a great football coach and an even better man."

Aaron Kampman, outside linebacker for the Green Bay Packers, knew Thomas not just as a coach but as a mentor in faith:

"Coach Thomas was very special to me and many other young men from the Aplington-Parkersburg communities. His legacy for many will be associated with his tremendous success as a football coach. However, I believe his greatest legacy comes not in how many football games he won or lost but in the fact that he was a committed follower of Jesus Christ. He lived his life trying to exemplify this faith and convey those values to those under his influence. His faith in Christ pervaded everything he did and that is why in the midst of the heartache we all feel there is comfort in knowing he is with his Savior."

Brad Meester of the Jacksonville Jaguars played at the University of Northern Iowa before starting his lengthy NFL career. He echoed many of the same things DeVries and Kampman said:

"There are so many things I could say about him. He was such a tremendous guy. Really a role model for all of us that have been at that school and anybody that's known him. A tremendous Christian guy. As a player he cared so much about each and every player that was there. As a (history) teacher he cared about each and every student. It's just a tragic thing that's really happened and it's been hard to believe. There are so many people that love this guy. I know he means a lot to that town and all that he has done for that town. I know that they're definitely devastated as we all are. It's been a hard moment."

It's been a hard moment for a town that has already known its share of hard moments. Now, for the second time in a little more than a year, Parkersburg finds itself in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Last May 25, an unimaginably powerful tornado tore the town to pieces. Coach Thomas was among the many who lost a house to the storm.

This is worse.

Houses are buildings. Houses are (usually) insured. They can be rebuilt.

How do you get over something like this?

It's amazing what you can do if you really don't have a choice, and the people of Parkersburg don't have a choice. Things will get back to normal, or at least something people agree to call "normal." It won't ever be like it was before, however, and even though things will be OK in Parkersburg again, it'll never be as good as it was. What the tornado didn't blow away, a gunman did.

Don't resort to the old and insulting cliche by saying "Things like this aren't supposed to happen in places like Parkersburg." Things like this aren't supposed to happen anywhere. They just do. Yet there is something lost, something that goes beyond the incalculable loss of a football coach who did his part to make Aplington and Parkersburg places people are proud to be from. This time of year in small-town Iowa is a time for sweaty work followed by the just reward of long, lazy evenings. It's a time for watching sunrises send fishermen off to their favorite spots and watching sunsets chase little kids home from pick-up football games. It's a time to wonder when the sweet corn and the impossibly sweet Muscatine melons will be ready. It's not a time to wonder why Ed Thomas is gone.

In time the wondering will stop. In time people will forget how Coach Thomas died and remember more how he lived.

But only in time.