Some of the coaching classes through an Area Education Agency that I took were taught my Ed Thomas. He was a charismatic and decent man, maybe somewhat old-school, but also humorous at times. I am not from Aplington or Parkersburg, and when I would hear about how much he and the A-P football program meant, I would kind of laugh it off a bit. However, I definitely admire what he was able to build there. Any Hawkeye fans of Aaron Kampman, Jared DeVries, or Casey Weigmann can, in part, thank Ed Thomas for helping to prepare those guys for college, the NFL, and life. I am a UNI grad, and I also root for Brad Meester, who is also an A-P and UNI grad.

Parkersburg obviously has been through a lot of hard times with last year’s terrible tornado. They certainly did not need this. On the other hand, I’m not sure how many communities had an Ed Thomas and a football team that meant so much to a town that was rebuilding from a disaster like that. I would not be shocked to see the new high school end up being named after Ed Thomas. The football field, which they refer to as the “sacred acre,” has already been named for Thomas.

God Bless you Ed, and my prayers go to your family and the towns of Aplington and Parkersburg.

I don’t know anyone from there, and have never even been to Parkersburg, but this is still just so, so sad and horrible…

And in the same town that was virtually wiped off the map by the EF-5 tornado last year, and then flooded out a couple weeks later. This guy was, by all accounts, one of those truly good people, pillars of the community, role-model, coach, teacher, the epitome of decency – what we as Iowans think of when we think of what it means to be from there. Man… just awful in every way. It is unspeakable and something that I just can’t wrap my mind around. What a terrible thing for a community to have to go through that has already gone through so much. My heart just aches – for his family, those kids, the community, the Beckers, everyone.