Ed Thomas: More than a football coach

This morning, I received phone calls, texts and emails from my former teammates at the University of Iowa informing me of the shooting death of Ed Thomas, the head coach at Aplington-Parkersburg High School.

Thomas was a leader in the community of Parkersburg, Iowa.

I was floored — and I still am.

With all the people I’ve talked to today, the one word that keeps surfacing is “shock.” And how can we not be shocked on a day like this — when a high school coach who was as big as the state of Iowa is taken from the community he helped build, and then rebuild again?

I never met Ed Thomas, but I know many families and former teammates at Iowa from Parkersburg — a small town northwest of Iowa City. They are hard-working and caring, and they speak volumes about the type of people you would expect to meet from the Hawkeye state.

Thomas was respected by Iowa coaches Hayden Fry and Kirk Ferentz. He was the 2005 NFL High School Coach of the Year. He was talked about with pride in the Hawkeye locker room, and he was influential in the lives of the people he met. I know because I saw it firsthand.

This tragedy is newsworthy in the NFL because Thomas helped coach four players — Aaron Kampman, Jared DeVries, Casey Wiegmann and Brad Meester — who all went from playing on Friday nights under the lights to the biggest stage of all as professional football players.

APFlowers lay outside of Ed Thomas Field in Parkersburg today.

I played with Jared, Casey and Aaron at Iowa and played two more years in the NFL with Kamp in Green Bay. They’re all good friends, and I cannot imagine the pain they are experiencing right now.

And that’s why we need to understand more about Thomas — because his roots go a lot deeper than coaching.

We need to understand that he had a strong faith; he was looked at as a leader not only in the community but also in the state of Iowa as a whole. He mentored young boys and turned them into men.

He led the effort to rebuild Parkersburg after a tornado ripped through the town last summer, destroying everything in its path — including the football field.

He brought hope to a town ravaged by destruction because he was more than a coach. He was a great man.

Sure, he won state titles and hundreds of football games, but he was also a father and a husband.

I understand that football is just a game, but when a town relies on its high school football program, it becomes something more than just a Friday night game played near cornfields and grain mills. Because this program, and this team, are just as important to the community of Parkersburg as Odessa Permian is down in Texas.

It’s something to believe in, something that provides hope, and something we can all relate to even in our darkest hours — because that’s what football can do. It can take us away from the reality of the world for four quarters.

And now, the people of Parkersburg and everyone who ever knew or heard of Ed Thomas will have to find a new hope, a new leader and a new friend — and that just doesn’t seem fair.

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