This morning, around 7:45 am, a young man entered the weight room at Aplington Parkersburg High School, just about 20 miles from where I live, and shot the coach multiple times, at point blank range. He died later at a local hospital. This man was Coach Ed Thomas. I had never met Coach Thomas, just seen him on the news a few times, but my heart aches at his loss. The tributes that are pouring out describe him as an amazing man, a long time coach at this tiny high school, which produced, under his tutelage, numerous NFL players. One parent said he not only taught the kids how to play football but how to be men. It was every young man's wish to play football under his leadership, not so much for the love of the sport but for the love of him. He was definitely a community leader and a strong man of faith.
What makes this loss even for tragic for this tiny town of about 2000 people is that just over 1 year ago, an EF 5 tornado tore through Parkersburg, killing 5 people and completely obliterating a good section of the community. Then, just 1 week later, the floods hit, destroying another 300 homes. Even though Coach Thomas' home was destroyed by the tornado, he could be found the next morning at the high school, which had also been destroyed, leading the team in clean up efforts.
It has been fun to watch him on the news as they were ready just 3 months after these disasters to play their first home game. They had an undefeated season last fall, losing in the playoffs.
Like I said, I had never met Ed Thomas so I'm not really sure why this is hitting me so hard. Maybe its because it shows again how you just don't know what will happen minute to minute. I'm sure he had left his home thousands of times and headed to the weight room to meet his team. Today just had a different ending.
