Thomas' message resonates one year after his death

PARKERSBURG - Ed Thomas' words are etched in stone outside the football field that bears his name.

“If all I have taught you is how to block and tackle, then I have failed as a coach.”

To most in this northern Iowa community, Thomas was an iconic figure as its Hall of Fame coach, church elder and humble servant. That changed on June 24, 2009, when Mark Becker, a 25-year-old former player, walked into the school's makeshift weightlifting facility and shot Thomas five times in front of 20 student-athletes.

Becker was arrested that day and convicted of first-degree murder on March 2. Hours after Thomas' death, his family urged the community to comfort the Becker family as well, bringing the town closer together.

Remembering that day is difficult for Tom Teeple, one of Thomas' best friends and owner of Tom's Barber Shop. Teeple, 64, drank coffee with Thomas the morning of his murder and recalls almost every detail from their last conversation.

“Ed always had this habit (shaking his wrist and looking at his watch), I said ‘Thomas, it's 6:30 in the morning, what have you got to do?'” Teeple said. “He said, ‘Well, I've got more kids than ever that work outside in summer jobs and it's important to me to get them to get to those people's jobs that start at 8 o'clock, just like when I start football. I've got to get up there and get that weight room opened up.' He chugged his coffee and said, ‘I'll come down this afternoon, we'll visit and I'll get my hair cut.'

“He left about quarter to 7.”

With two hours, Thomas was dead.

Teeple, 64, chokes up when he talks about that day. He's proud that Thomas' influence has spread beyond the community and his teachings have provided a blueprint of sorts for success in life.

“He gave a lot to the community,” said 13-year-old McKayla Stohr, whose brother, Damion, played football for Thomas. “We took away that no matter what, we have to be strong and to work together.”

Thomas became the town's key figure in the aftermath of an EF-5 tornado in 2008 that leveled half the town - including the high school and 200 homes - and killed eight people. Four former players now in the NFL - Aaron Kampman, Jared DeVries, Brad Meester and Casey Wiegmann - helped raise more than $200,000 for the town. Thomas, with his desire to repair the shrapnel-filled football field by August and build the high school on the same spot, urged Parkersburg residents to move past the disaster and stick with the community.

The team played its first home game in 2008 on “Ed Thomas Field.”

“Ed didn't go out and rebuild the gas station or his neighbor's house,” Aplington-Parkersburg Schools Superintendent Jon Thompson said. “It just that leadership. When you're viewed that highly as a leader, I think your message gets carried a lot further than you realize.”

One year removed from Thomas' murder, normalcy somewhat has returned to Parkersburg. Outside the Becker family home six miles north of town, much of the corn is past knee-high two weeks before the Fourth of July. The sounds of construction fill the air, as do the rumble of churchgoers leaving Vacation Bible School, the sight of a lemonade stand along Highway 14 and the buzzing of lawn mowers.

Thomas once mowed the football field - nicknamed the “Sacred Acre” - every other day with precision and passion. That job in part has shifted to new football coach Alex Pollock. It's just one act of moving on, just as Thomas would have wanted.

“I think the nice, northern Iowa town is why we're able to stand here two years later from that tornado and a year later from Ed's death and be as strong as we are and have shown how resilient we are,” Thompson said. “I've always thought we've been the unfortunate ones that have been able to show the true Iowa spirit the last two years.

“I think the desire to return back to normal, everybody wants that. We've wanted that for two years. We had one big speed bump along the way last year, but it's starting to feel more like normal ... whatever that means. But I think we'll get there.”