Thomas wraps up "Hometown Teams" speaking series in Conrad

The worst day of Aaron Thomas’s life has unexpectedly provided the Aplington-Parkersburg educator, coach and athletic director with more opportunities than he ever could have dreamed of as a small town Iowa kid.
           
Thomas, the son of the late Ed Thomas, addressed a crowd of about 25 at the First Presbyterian Church in Conrad on Saturday afternoon as the final guest in a speaking series aligned with the Smithsonian Museum’s “Hometown Teams: How Sports Shape America” exhibit, which also included wrestling legend Dan Gable and former Union-Whitten 6-on-6 basketball star Denise (Long) Rife. The exhibit will remain open until the end of the year.
           
Ed Thomas, the longtime Parkersburg Crusader and A-P Falcon football coach, became something of a small-town celebrity on three separate occasions: first, for the successes of his teams on the field, with two state championships and four players reaching the National Football League (NFL); second, for his leadership in the aftermath of the EF-5 tornado that decimated Parkersburg and New Hartford on May 25, 2008, leaving hundreds of millions worth of damage and claiming nine lives; and third, for his tragic and seemingly inexplicable murder on June 24, 2009, when a former football player suffering from severe mental illness walked into the weight room and shot Thomas at point blank range.
           
As Aaron explained, his father always had chances to seek out greener pastures: Iowa State, UNI and Iowa all wanted him to come on as an assistant coach, and he could’ve been a head coach at a Division III school like Simpson or a large 4A high school. But from the day he moved to Parkersburg and became a coach in the 1970s, he never wanted to be anywhere else—even after receiving exposure from high profile media outlets like the New York Times, ESPN and Sports Illustrated and winning the National Coach of the Year Award in 2005.
 
“He absolutely loved our community,” Aaron said. “I can honestly say (that) as a high school student, I thought I went to the greatest school there was.” 
 
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