Great Coaches Know It's Far More Than a Game

I have written twice here at POI about a place near our Iowa home of eighteen years. The town is Parkersburg (the high school is called Aplington-Parkersburg). The first story was of one the math teachers at my previous school whose house was blown away by a tornado in 2007. She was in the basement at the time.

The second came a full year later this past June, when a different kind of storm of far greater impact hit that town. The video link below was sent to me by friend Stehpen who taught with me in Waterloo, Iowa, and was in a coaching class taught by Ed Thomas, the subject of the short film essay. The film also mentions Jared Devries of the Detroit Lions. I was the videographer at his wedding back in 1999. The groomsmen consisted of the defensive line of the Iowa football team. You can imagine how different that day was than the one that brought Jared back to his hometown this past summer. He is just one of four NFL players who began their careers under Coach Thomas. In June, he had this to say, "Aside from my own father and mother, no one had a more profound impact on my life than Coach Thomas. He truly was like a second father to me and to the hundreds of players from our community he coached over the years."

This ESPN video is probably better than anything on TV tonight so get out a Kleenex and watch this unfinished story.

Double-click here: In Parkersburg, the game must go on
Text of story here.