Iowa prep coach dies after shooting

Posted: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:07 pm
By: By NIGEL DUARA, Associated Press Writer

A prominent central Iowa high school football coach has died after being shot in the school’s weight room.
The family of Aplington-Parkersburg High School coach Ed Thomas said in a statement this morning that he died shortly after arriving at a Waterloo hospital.
A gunman opened fire on Thomas in the school weight room at about 8 a.m. Authorities say he was captured shortly thereafter, and is being held at the Butler County jail.
No one else was injured in the attack.
Butler County spokeswoman Holly Fokkena says about 50 students were in the school when the shooting occurred.
Jessica Lown of the Iowa Department of Public Safety said the school has been secured and no else was injured. She declined to say whether the suspect is a student at the school.
Muller said she’s been told the shooter is not a student.
The district’s superintendent and a guidance counselor were meeting with students who were in the weight room at the time of the shooting.
Thomas, who was also Aplington-Parkersburg High School’s athletic director, runs a program during the summer for students, not just members of the team, Muller said.
Thomas was one of the most well-known high school football coaches in Iowa.
He was honored as the NFL High School Coach of the Year in 2005, and four of his former players are in the NFL: Green Bay’s Aaron Kampman, Jacksonville’s Brad Meester, Detroit’s Jared DeVries and Denver’s Casey Wiegmann.
Thomas made national headlines last year when he insisted that the high school’s football field, named in his honor, be rebuilt as a way to help restore community pride
Thomas had a career record of 292-84 in 37 seasons as a head coach, 34 of them at Aplington-Parkersburg.

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