Iowa HS Football Coach Shot, Killed

Randomness does not begin to describe this: Aplington-Parkersburg High School football coach Ed Thomas has been shot and killed in the weight room of the high school he taught at for over 30 years, according to multiple Iowa news sources.

Details are scanty right now, but Thomas has died as a result of his injuries, and officials have apprehended the killer, who is in custody at the Butler County Jail. The shooting happened sometime this morning during a summer program Thomas ran for students at the high school, which is located around 80 miles northeast of Des Moines.

Thomas' tragic death ends a life of real achievement in spite of circumstance. Aplington-Parkersburg, a tiny high school with only 250 students enrolled in the entire student body, fielded a perennially successful team under Thomas that produced four NFL linemen: Brad Meester of the Jaguars, Casey Wiegmann of the Broncos, Aaron Kampman of the Packers, and Jared DeVries of the Lions.

Thomas also tended the program through an event that would destroy many communities, much less their football program: an F5 tornado in May of 2008 that destroyed the football team's weight room and the bleachers at the stadium. (The team lifted weights in an old horse barn in the meantime.)

This is a video of Thomas' speech to the student body just before their return to the rebuilt field in 2008. It is very, very moving.

We'll update this post as more info comes in.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.