Crowds mourn slain coach

PARKERSBURG -- The blocks-long line to get into Ed Thomas' visitation Sunday is yet another testament to the popularity of the slain football coach and to the esteem in which the community holds his memory.

"I went there hoping to comfort his family (wife Jan and sons Aaron, 30, and Todd, 28), and they actually made me feel better. That's the kind of people they are," said Linda Kessler of Parkersburg.

Kessler's daughter, Laurie Anderson of Dunkerton, a 1987 graduate of Aplington-Parkersburg High School, said most of the community was still in shock and disbelief, four days after the 58-year-old Thomas was shot to death early Wednesday in a makeshift school weight room.

Friends and relatives started queuing up at the First Congregational Church door at 2 p.m., and by the time the door opened an hour later, the line, which was several people wide in most spots, stretched nearly around the block. People were still standing in the long line at 9 last night.

Consistent with Thomas' teaching to do the right thing, there was no cutting in line. Even Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican from nearby New Hartford and a longtime admirer of the coach, inched slowly toward the church to express his condolences to the Thomas family.

Thomas, he said, was a multifaceted man who will be remembered as much for his Christian faith and community leadership as for his teams' success on the football field.

The mourners included several coaches wearing the insignia of Iowa high schools.

Thomas was "a close friend and mentor" who often offered encouragement to young coaches, said Aundra Meeks, head football coach at Columbus Catholic High School in Waterloo.

"He shared his faith and taught me leadership," Meeks said.

At regular services earlier Sunday, congregations at eight Parkersburg churches lamented their loss and grappled with the age-old question -- Why does a loving God allow evil to befall good people?

"We simply need to trust that God will bring about the good," the Rev. Ryan Zurbriggen told his congregation at Calvary Baptist Church.

The Rev. Keith Sievers, pastor of the Bethel Lutheran Church, told his congregation that God will help them "make sense where there is no sense" and "see the good in a world that knocks us down again and again."

Parkersburg's faithful also expressed the need to pray for both the Thomas family and the family of Mark Becker, the 24-year-old former Aplington-Parkersburg football player charged with killing Thomas.

Wendall Abkes, a deacon at Calvary Baptist, asked God to be with Mark Becker.

"As written in the word of God, we are to forgive and pray for those in need," he said.

Thomas' funeral starts at 10:30 this morning at the Congregational Church.