Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Trying to understand

The murder of Aplington-Parkersburg head football coach Ed Thomas troubles me on so many fronts.

I just can't understand what goes through someone's mind in that situation. I've studied the mentally ill and wondered what is the cause of crimes like these, mental illness, drugs, a bio-chemical imbalance, what not.

This story is confusing because of the past relationship. I can understand holding a grudge against a coach for not letting you play, or screwing you over (in your own mind, when in reality, you probably didn't deserve to play) and out of playing time and holding that grudge for most of your life. But this is a place where they win. It wasn't a coach who was bad. They were good, year in, year out.

Now, he's gone.

What became center stage after one tragedy, is again in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

I don't know the exact situation. One of my big sources of AP info is out of the state right now, so I'll wait, and be a consumer of the story that troubles me to no end.

Again, I learned many breaking details on Twitter. There were sources there resending someone else's info, but the story was out there.

A personal side note. My dad was at Covenant this AM for a test. His appointment was at 830. He told my mom later he heard the helicopter arrive from his exam room. Mom was in the waiting room and could see commotion and heard enough details and picked up signals that something was going on. The Trauma 1 call, 4 minutes ETA were both tips.

Its sad because so many kids thought the world of Ed Thomas and the role football played in their lives.

Football helped heal the community after the tornado of 2008, now they're going to have to heal again, and this wound seems mighty deep and the healer before is gone.

--- Update ---
ESPN featured the community in an E:60 story called the Sacred Acre.
Todd Bailey did work for the Des Moines Register in several pieces following the first game after the tornado. Also, this video is well done.




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