High School Football Coach Ed Thomas shot in Weightroom

[Ryno12]

This morning, legendary Iowa High School football coach Ed Thomas from Aplington Parkersburg High School was shot and killed in the weightroom at the high school. Thomas was the 2005 NFL High School Football Coach of the Year, and coached four current NFL linemen: Jared DeVries, Aaron Kampman, Casey Weigman, and Brad Meester. Parkersburg is the town in Iowa that was hit and destroyed by the F5 tornado last year, so this is just adding to the stuggles that community has faced. Not only was Coach Thomas highly respected as a coach, but also as great person who was a leader in the community.

 

Apparently, he was shot by a former player, though it is unclear why at this point.

 

This story hits close to home for me as I attended football camp at A-P all four years while I was in high school. I can personally say that Coach Thomas was a great coach, and he will be missed.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/highschool/rise/football/news/story?id=4283443

[jersey cubs fan]

I'm going to guess the player felt the coach didn't do enough to get him a college scholarship or something.

[abuck1220]

parkersburg's had a rough go of it lately, to say the least.

[Rusch33]

parkersburg's had a rough go of it lately, to say the least.

 

Yep, tornado destroyed their town last year and they lose their head coach the next year.

[Butterscup1679666578]

I'm going to guess the player felt the coach didn't do enough to get him a college scholarship or something.

 

The suspect is 24 years old. Seems like six years later is a weird time to go crazy about not getting a scholarship

[jersey cubs fan]

I'm going to guess the player felt the coach didn't do enough to get him a college scholarship or something.

 

The suspect is 24 years old. Seems like six years later is a weird time to go crazy about not getting a scholarship

 

Seems to me the perfect time for the rage to come out. Maybe the person thought he'd be a pro by now, instead, he's a low-paid worker in debt from school and other things. Plus, from what I know of Iowa high school and college sports, there's a heck of a lot of complaining about playing time and coaches having favorites and whatnot.

[imb]

I'm going to guess the player felt the coach didn't do enough to get him a college scholarship or something.

 

The suspect is 24 years old. Seems like six years later is a weird time to go crazy about not getting a scholarship

 

Seems to me the perfect time for the rage to come out. Maybe the person thought he'd be a pro by now, instead, he's a low-paid worker in debt from school and other things. Plus, from what I know of Iowa high school and college sports, there's a heck of a lot of complaining about playing time and coaches having favorites and whatnot.

 

that's just high school sports in general

[jersey cubs fan]

I'm going to guess the player felt the coach didn't do enough to get him a college scholarship or something.

 

The suspect is 24 years old. Seems like six years later is a weird time to go crazy about not getting a scholarship

 

Seems to me the perfect time for the rage to come out. Maybe the person thought he'd be a pro by now, instead, he's a low-paid worker in debt from school and other things. Plus, from what I know of Iowa high school and college sports, there's a heck of a lot of complaining about playing time and coaches having favorites and whatnot.

 

that's just high school sports in general

 

Well, I'm personally familiar with Iowa, Illinois and NJ high school sports, and I have noticed that issue with Iowa in particular much more than the rest. But it could just be the people involved.

[Banedon]

Nah...dude was a delinquent. His pic is in this article on the right if anyone is interested.

 

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090624/NEWS/90624008

 

He also was charged with underage possession of alcohol in August 2004 and pleaded guilty to that charge a month later.

 

A review of court records also that Becker received a deferred judgment on a charge of possession of drug paraphernalia 2003. The court order ­ signed on Sept. 3, 2003 ­ also notes that "the defendant allowed to participate in football if acceptable to the school."

 

He was in a car chase over the weekend after bashing windows with a baseball bat.

 

That kid wasn't ever getting any scholarships.

 

I'm guessing he was high or drunk and some old incident where he was mad at that coach just took over...

[jersey cubs fan]

So just a loser whose life went to crap and he blames the football coach for not fixing it?

[Banedon]

So just a loser whose life went to crap and he blames the football coach for not fixing it?

 

Seems that way.

[hawkeyecub]

His younger brother was going to be a senior next year. Apparently he's a pretty good player so it wouldn't have been a playing time/scholarship dispute. Some rumors that the kid wanted to be an assistant coach and Thomas turned him down but there may not be any truth to that.

 

Not sure how liability works in a situation like this, but the shooter was arrested after the vandalism incident and led police on a chase last weekend near Cedar Falls. He was sent for psych evaluation and Cedar Falls police were to be notified if/when he was released so they could process him.

They were not, he went free and shoots Thomas a few days later.

[abuck1220]

yikes. lawsuit time...

 

Officials provided updates this afternoon on the investigation into the death of Ed Thomas.

 

At an afternoon press conference, investigators said police brought suspect Mark Becker to Covenant Medical Center after a high-speed chase sparked by an incident in which Becker broke into another man’s house.

 

Investigators said police asked hospital officials to notify them before releasing Becker, but they said hospital officials failed to do so. They said he was released from the hospital Tuesday morning.

 

the high speed chase involved the killer busting up some property with a baseball bat. he was caught after the high speed chase and sent to some type of mental hospital for evaluation. cops wanted a heads up when he was done with this evaluation (apparently so they could arrest him), but the place just let him go.

[TruffleShuffle]

yeah someone's getting sued big.

[Magnetic Curses]

in the world of mental health, this is called "the front page".

 

guaranteed 20-year lawsuit that changes iowa behavioral health forever.

[shnsajax]

They are showing this teams first game of the year on ESPN right now.

[NCCubFan]

And they won the game 30-14.