Tragic Times Fail to Deter Iowa HS Football Team

The season is over for the most famous high school football team in America. It wasn't the happy ending everyone wanted.

If it had been, ESPN's trucks would be rolling back into Parkersburg, Iowa, followed by a truckload of other media. This story had a Hollywood beginning, then it turned into a reality show.

"Our kids deserved to have a ball bounce their way or a break to win a close game," Al Kerns said. "But that's the movies."

He's the co-coach at Aplington-Parkersburg High. You may not remember the name, but you probably remember the plight.

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One year the town was flattened by a tornado. The next it was leveled by a murder of its iconic coach by an ex-player.

The happy ending called for a state title, though happy was never the right word. What this movie cried for was a fitting ending.

By that measure, the Falcons still deserve an Oscar.

"Oh, they're winners," Kerns said. "They got knocked flat and stood up and moved on. They can take a punch."

They finished 6-4, a record that would have qualified as tragic until two years ago. That's when perspective hit with 200 mph winds. Six people were killed and 220 houses destroyed, along with the high school and football stadium.

The community rallied around its football team. Coach Ed Thomas' boys went 11-1 and lived up to the Midwestern farming community screen image. You know -- silos, tractors and humble resiliency.

Act I was dramatic enough to be featured on ESPN. Nothing could have prepared Parkersburg for Act II.

"I wouldn't wish it upon my enemies," Kerns said. "And I hope you don't print that."

I will, only because it shows how caring the people of Parkersburg truly are. They even embraced the family of the man who killed their hero.

Mark Becker walked into the school's weight room June 24 and allegedly shot Thomas in front of dozens of students. Becker was a former player who has since been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic.

I say allegedly because Becker hasn't been convicted. But everybody knows who pulled the trigger. The amazing thing is how they accepted it.

The Becker and Thomas families attend the same church. The coach was an elder and tried to help his ex-player. After the shooting, Thomas' widow was one of the first people to call the Beckers.

She wanted to make sure they were all right.

That kind of pathos made the Act II so irresistible. Media swarmed to the town with no stop lights, one gas station, eight churches and a football field nicknamed "The Sacred Acre."

ESPN televised the opening game against rival Dike-New Hartford. The Falcons won 30-14 as star tailback Alex Hornbuckle gained 231 yards.

"We had all that attention and distraction and all that circus," Kerns said. "But Monday, it was gone."

The viewers had their happy ending. But life continued in Parkersburg .

"There's an empty spot," Kerns said. "That's for sure."

There was no way to replace a coach who'd been there 34 years, won two state championships, almost 300 games and touched thousands of lives.

Thomas' little program has four players in the NFL. There are entire states that haven't produced that many. But in keeping with the script, his true success wasn't on the field.

"If all I have taught you is how to block and tackle, then I have failed as a coach."
- Ed Thomas "If all I have taught you is how to block and tackle, then I have failed as a coach."

That's the credo on the ticket booth at Ed Thomas Field. The 2,000 people who showed up at his funeral were there because of Thomas' character, not his blocking schemes.

His son Aaron told the mourners his dad would want them to draw strength from adversity and look ahead. Most of his players had already been through enough tornado adversity to last a couple of lifetimes.

Now this?

"We tried to keep it the same," said Kerns, a longtime assistant. "But then it's almost ridiculous to say that."

He and John Weigman were named co-coaches immediately after the shooting. The job demanded psychological skills neither knew if they possessed.

"You're totally unique," Kerns told the team. "To one year go through a devastating tornado, and the next a tragedy like this with all its storylines. I don't think there's ever been a team like you."

The Falcons won their first four games, but the script was already going awry. All-State guard Jordan Simon took his nephews fishing one day. He stepped on something sharp in the water and it nearly severed his foot.

The Falcons lost a 21-20 heartbreaker. Hornbuckle dinged his knee. There were broken hands, three players in walking casts and more concussions than Kerns could remember in his three decades of coaching.

There were lucky bounces, only they always seemed to go the other way. Kerns tried not to shake his fist at the heavens.

"That runs through your mind," he said, "but we didn't dwell on it. We just said, 'We've got to get better.'"

They lost three of four and needed a season-ending win to avoid being only the third Falcons team in 17 years not to make the playoffs. In his final game at the Sacred Acre, Hornbuckle rushed for 140 yards and two scores in the first half, and the Falcons beat Denver, 34-7.

"It's a lot easier to deal with things when you have lots of people that you care about around you and that are there to help you," Hornbuckle said after the game. "Just do good things like Coach (Thomas) would have wanted. Be a good person."

One of the best people was Scott Becker. The shooter's younger brother was also the Falcons' best offensive lineman. From the day of the shooting, everybody went out of their way to make him comfortable.

In the Hollywood version, he would have thrown the block that sprung Hornbuckle toward the winning touchdown in the state championship game. In the real version, the Falcons just made last Friday's opening playoff round.

They took unbeaten Emmetsburg to overtime, but lost, 13-7. There were no ESPN cameras or post-game press conferences or testimonials from the governor. As the Falcons got on their bus for the long ride home, Kerns wished he had more microphones to address.

"This is a special bunch," he said. "Everybody pulled together every day."

After two years no team should ever have to endure, this story had a fitting ending. The Falcons made it back to Ed Thomas Field and looked at the motto on the ticket booth wall.

The last players he ever coached could look at Thomas' words and know he had not failed.