Local football teams to wear decals honoring slain coach

When attending a football game this season you may see a new sticker on the helmets from years past.

This season, the Iowa Football Coaches Association in collaboration with the Iowa High School Athletic Assocaiaton (IHSAA) and the family of the late Aplington-Parkersburg football coach Ed Thomas, has created a helmet decal commemorating the life of the late varsity coach.

“Faith, Family and Football” was a way of life for Thomas, and a mindset he passed on to his players and community.

With that in mind, this year’s decal will say “FFF ’09.”

Many of the football coaches in the Red Oak area worked with Thomas in camps or knew him personally.

“He was a straight arrow,” Stanton Head Coach Don Hicks said about Thomas. “He was a good, Christian man, who was a leader in his community in many more ways than just as a coach.”

Thomas was the head coach of Aplington-Parkersburg for the last 34 seasons and was gunned down by a former player, 24 year-old Mark Becker, last June.

The coach was also a key part of the community and helped rebuild Parkersburg after a 2008 tornado destroyed about a third of the community.

“He was a genuinely nice guy,” Villisca Co-Head Coach Jason Hults said. “He went out of his way for people, and did a lot of things he didn’t have to do.”

More than 3000 people were estimated to have attended Thomas’ funeral last June.

“A few coaches and I went to the viewing for Ed’s funeral,” Hicks said. “There were people in line for over three blocks and waited for over three hours just to go to the viewing. Having that many people care really shows what kind of person he really was.”