The Sacred Acre

by Mark Tabb

Ed hugged her tight, tears streaming down his face. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Well done.”

  After the game, the coaches and their wives got together for their traditional postgame celebration. As soon as the party ended, Ed got in his little red truck and drove back to the converted bus barn. He had uniforms to wash, something he did after every game. Walking into the locker room, a huge smile broke out across his face. He pulled the first set of football pants up out of the large, plastic trash can where they had been soaking since the game ended. Using a bar of Lava soap, he scrubbed the grass stains on the knees. For Ed, this was how a Friday night was supposed to end.

  *World Class Athletic Surfaces donated both the paints and the custom-made stencils to A-P.

  * View highlights of the first game at www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw0gxtNzV6w.

  CHAPTER 13

  THE FINAL SEASON

  Give me players with great effort, and I will take them any day over talent. Put the two together, and you have something special.

  ED THOMAS

  WHEN ED ARRIVED AT THE FIELD EARLY THE NEXT MORNING, Ron Westerman was waiting for him. “Divot mix ready?” Ed asked.

  “Got it right here,” Ron replied, lifting up a five-gallon bucket.

  “All right, let’s get started.” Ed and Ron did this after every home game. The two of them walked around the field and poured the combination of pregerminated grass seed, sand, a drying agent, and green dye into the divots left from players’ cleats the night before. They started at the five yard line on the west end of the field. “Hey, we’ve got lots of hookies down here.” “Hookies” was Ed’s name for the cleat marks left by defensive linemen who dug in as they tried to stop the Falcon offense. The divots turned, or hooked, at the place where the A-P offensive line shoved them back so far that the defense could no longer hold its position. Ed specialized in teaching offensive line play. The better his team played, the more hookies on the field —and today this end of the field was covered with them.

  “Your guys spent a lot of time close to the end zones last night,” Ron said. “I think you scored every time you touched the ball.”

  “The fellas played really well. I was sure proud of them,” Ed replied.

  Ed and Ron worked their way across the rest of the field. “Right here is where Wiegmann* got that big quarterback sack in the fourth quarter,” Ed said pointing to a hole in the turf on the fifteen yard line. “And here’s where Hornbuckle broke free for that seventy-yard run,” he said on the thirty yard line.

  “That kid went nuts last night,” Ron said. “What did he have, a hundred and fifty yards?”

  “Two hundred,” Ed said with pride.

  The night before had been an emotional Super Bowl for Ed, his team, and the entire community. But on this Saturday morning, walking around the field, fixing divots like Ed did after every home football game, the game was just a game.

  And that is exactly what he needed it to be.

  For more than one hundred days, every moment of nearly every day had been consumed by the aftermath of the tornado. But now Ed could relax a little. The first game had been played, and their house was almost completely rebuilt. He still had tons of work left with planning the new school, but when he walked out on the football field, none of that mattered. All that mattered was working with some eighty young men to win one game at a time, and along the way to impart lessons that he prayed would stick with them the rest of their lives.

  With so much energy focused on playing the first home game, it would have been understandable if the team came out flat the next Friday night on the road against Grundy Center. The Falcons weren’t even flat for their next practice, much less their next game. Every season, Ed preached to his team to practice like champions. He believed that the way a team practiced was a direct indicator of how they would play on Friday night. If they gave a lackluster effort on Wednesday afternoon, that’s how they would play two days later. “If we don’t work hard to turn our weaknesses into strengths, I can guarantee you that every team we will play this season is working hard to exploit those weaknesses!” he said over and over. “Our goals this season have nothing to do with winning and losing. Every day we want to be better than the day before. That means we’re going to practice better today than we ever have. And when the game rolls around, we’re going to play like we practice. If we work hard and work together, we can do great things.”

  The 2008 version of the Aplington-Parkersburg Falcons took this idea and ran with it. Right from the start, it became clear to the entire coaching staff that this group of young men enjoyed being together. Because of how they had worked together clearing rubble and helping with the rebuilding, both at school and around town, they had a closer bond than any team Ed had ever coached. Two weeks after the tornado, a group of players went over to New Hartford when floodwaters swept through that town. They worked with Dike-New Hartford players to pull books and desks out of the middle school before the rising river got to it. Working together in this way developed a camaraderie that went far beyond the football field. Once they ran onto the field, the end result was a team that was far better than the sum of its parts.

  In the third game of the season, A-P went on the road to Grundy Center for its first district game. “They always play us tough,” Ed warned throughout the week. A-P won 60 to 13. The following week, they came back to Ed Thomas Field to go against Nashua-Plainfield. Once again, Ed warned the team that these guys were big and strong and that it would take their best effort to come out on top. A-P pulled it out, 50 to 32, in one of its closest regular season games of the year. Over its remaining five district games, A-P failed to score forty or more points only once, a 34 to 6 road win over BCLUW.* During the regular season, they averaged 48 points and five hundred yards of offense per game. A-P entered the state playoffs undefeated and ranked number one in the state. Along the way, they set an Iowa state record for rushing yardage for the season. It was, by all accounts, a very successful season.

  Halfway through the season, Ed was working with the offensive line during practice. In the middle of a drill, he blew his whistle and said, “Hold on, guys. Let’s hold off for a minute.” Once he had everyone’s attention, he said, “Fellas, I want to tell you that this season is the most fun I have ever had. I love being out here with you guys. I love coaching every year, but this year has been so much fun for me.” Before any of the players could say a word in response, Ed blew his whistle and said, “All right, guards, line up.”

  The first Saturday in October marked another victory for Ed and Jan. They moved into their newly rebuilt home. Ed didn’t quite make his goal of being the first house rebuilt on the south side of town, but he was close. Only one or two houses were finished before the Thomases’ house. Ed and Jan kept the same footprint their home had before the tornado. When they first started talking about what to rebuild, they agreed they did not want to sink themselves deep into debt. Their homeowners insurance paid to rebuild what they had before, and both Ed and Jan were content with that. On the inside, Jan tweaked the floor plan to make it more user-friendly. The original house was the classic hodgepodge you find with older homes in the Midwest. They had added onto it three times in their thirty-plus years there. With the new home, the entire floor plan flowed together.

  Aaron and Ellie and their three sons, along with Todd and Candice, came over to help with the move-in. Like everything else that came after the tornado, this wasn’t the typical move of a couple who had been married over thirty years. Aside from their clothes, and there weren’t many of those, the only thing Ed and Jan moved from their apartment to the new house was the bed Jan picked out right after they moved in over True Value Hardware. They scrapped the weathered dresser and dining room table they salvaged from the debris. All of the appliances were delivered and set up the week before they moved in. The furniture Jan bought in Cedar Falls wouldn’t arrive for another few days, however, Aaron went by and picked up a couple of chairs so that Ed and Jan would at leas
t have a place to sit in the evenings.

  All through the day, people drove past the Thomases’ home and honked and waved while friends stopped by to welcome them home. This was more than move-in day for the Thomases; it was a town-wide celebration that repeated itself every time a new home went up. The sense of optimism and hope that permeated the crowd during the first football game broke out all over town. Every day it seemed like someone else moved into their newly rebuilt home. By the end of the football season, the south side of town was lit up and alive. The view on Highway 57 still took some getting used to. All of the mature maple trees that had covered every block were gone. By spring, however, new trees were staked in front of almost every house. Parkersburg wasn’t just back. It had sprung back to life faster and stronger than anyone, except Parkersburg itself, ever thought possible.

  Ed was back in his home and in his normal routines by the time the state playoffs rolled around. Saturday mornings, he and Ron repaired divots on the field and then met with the team to find out who was dinged up from the night before. On Sundays, he and Jan went to the First Congregational Church, where Ed served as an elder and Sunday school teacher. Sunday afternoons, Ed and his coaching staff met to go over game film of their next opponent, while a television was on in the background with the live broadcast of a game featuring one of the four NFL players from Parkersburg. Ed never got to watch the game. He had to get ready for next week’s opponent.

  With the start of the playoffs looming, he had little time to prepare. In Iowa, playoff games come quickly. The Falcons finished the regular season on a Friday night and played their first playoff game five days later on Wednesday. Fortunately, they opened at home, beating St. Ansgar 42 to 0. The following Monday, they faced St. Edmond High School from Fort Dodge. For the first time all season, A-P trailed with five minutes left to play in the game. However, they rallied and pulled out a 40 to 35 home victory, which placed them in the state quarterfinals. One more win meant moving on to play in the semifinals at the UNI Dome on the campus of the University of Northern Iowa in Waterloo.

  However, a big obstacle stood in A-P’s way. For their next game, the Falcons had to travel three hours by bus to take on the number two team in the state, the Emmetsburg E’Hawks. It was A-P’s fourth game in fifteen days.

  In all of Ed’s years at A-P, he had never played Emmetsburg, although he had watched them play many times. Back in 1978, Ed learned his hurry-up offense from Emmetsburg’s longtime coach, Duane Twait. Coach Twait had since retired, but the E’Hawks still used the hurry-up. In fact, Emmetsburg and A-P mirrored one another in terms of history, tradition, and approach to the game. However, the E’Hawks were bigger and faster than the Falcons. By this point in the season, A-P had grown accustomed to playing bigger and faster teams.

  The three-hour drive to Emmetsburg from Parkersburg looked like a scene from the movie Hoosiers. Snow swept across the road on a cold north wind. The two team buses were nearly silent for the entire drive. A few players later said the trip felt like it would never end. To a man, everyone on the team knew they would eventually have to beat Emmetsburg; they just hoped that the game would come in the state finals in the UNI Dome, not in Emmetsburg on a snowy Friday night.

  The players filed off the bus and went into the locker room to get ready for warm-ups. Ed went out on the field, alone. With no one around, he walked back and forth across the field where his team would soon play. Lord, he prayed, I understand that it will take a miracle for us to pull this out tonight. I want you to know that whatever your will is, that’s the way it will be. I accept that, Lord. I accept it.

  He joined his team in the locker room. Looking around the room, he could tell some of his players were scared. Others were on edge at the thought of knowing that the season could end tonight. “Fellas, it doesn’t get any better than this,” he said with a smile. “Eight teams left in the state of Iowa; two of the richest traditional programs in the history of football in the state playing each other for the first time. This is just another night we get to play this game. It’s another night we get to go out and prove ourselves. Like I told you all week, it all comes down to who is going to come out and hit whom.

  “We’re not intimidated by coming to this place,” he said with so much conviction that the players who were intimidated felt a little less scared. “And they wouldn’t be if they came into our place. We’ve just got to block and tackle and be relentless for four quarters. For four quarters we’ve gotta keep coming. And remember, fellas, we are not going to face any more adversity out there than we’ve already been through.

  “Tonight, guys, is about your legacy. That’s what this program is all about. Where we are tonight has been passed down to you from those who wore this uniform before you. And you’re going to pass this tradition down to the next group. That’s what this is all about.

  “All I ask from you tonight is to leave all you’ve got out on that field. And when we line up and shake hands after the game is over, we will look back on this with no regrets because we left it all out there. You’re going to make memories tonight, just like you have all season. Now I don’t know how this season will end, but let me tell you, whenever it ends, I don’t want anyone to cry because we lost. Cry instead because the season is over, because this has been a season to remember forever.

  “One of the papers here in Emmetsburg said tonight’s game matches two evenly matched teams. They said the difference will be E’Hawk pride. I agree. We are two evenly matched teams. We mirror one another in a lot of ways. But the difference tonight is going to be FALCON PRIDE! I want you to go out there and enjoy every minute of tonight and compete your tails off! Let’s go!”

  On one of the first plays of the game, Falcon defensive back Coy Wiegmann ran over to tackle Emmetsburg’s biggest running back. The collision left Coy lying flat on the ground. He looked up, snow falling through his face mask. He later said he’d never been that cold in his life. Nearly everyone else on the team thought the same thing. A damp cold hung over the field. Even so, A-P fought hard. Midway through the second quarter, with both teams scoreless, the Falcons drove to the Emmetsburg one yard line. The team that averaged 48 points per game in the regular season was kept out of the end zone for four straight plays. Emmetsburg took over and proceeded to move the ball slowly, methodically, down the field for the go-ahead touchdown. The first half ended with A-P trailing 7 to 0.

  Emmetsburg extended its lead to 14 to 0 early in the third quarter. They were driving again midway through the fourth quarter when A-P recovered a fumble at its own twenty-five yard line. It appeared to be the break they needed. A-P came back to score a touchdown in the fourth quarter, although the two-point conversion attempt failed. They trailed 14 to 6 with less than five minutes to go in the game. No one on the Parkersburg sideline panicked. They had trailed with less than five minutes to go the previous Monday night and came back to win that game.

  The Falcons forced an Emmetsburg punt on the ensuing possession. They took over the ball deep in their own territory with the clock winding down. Ed called a pass play, which should have taken the E’Hawks by surprise. A-P had been and would always be a running team under Ed Thomas. Emmetsburg was not fooled. They sacked Alec Thompson for a ten-yard loss. A screen pass to Alex Hornbuckle went for no gain on second down. Another pass on third down gained six yards, setting up a fourth down with fourteen yards to go. A minute and forty-seven seconds remained in the game.

  Ed called a pass play down the left sideline to their horse, Alex Hornbuckle. Alex had gained over a thousand yards on the season as a running back. Unfortunately, the ball fell to the ground, incomplete. The emotional ride that began with Ed’s bold pronouncement the day after the tornado was now over. The number one ranked A-P Falcons fell to the number two ranked Emmetsburg E’Hawks 14 to 6. Two weeks later, Emmetsburg won the state championship game.

  Tears filled the A-P sideline as the clock wound down to 00:00. “Get your heads up,” Ed told his players. “Get your heads up b
ecause you have nothing to be ashamed of. There were two great football teams out there tonight, and we came up short. But we’ve had a tremendous season. We are not going to hang our heads. We are going to walk off with our heads up!”

  As the players made their way to the locker room, a reporter stuck a microphone in Ed’s face. “Coach, this has to hurt,” he said.

  “It does, but this was a season I’ll never forget. It has been a tremendous last five months for us, and I couldn’t be prouder of our kids and the way they handled themselves tonight. They gave everything they had on the field, and you can’t ask for anything more than that.

  “I just feel bad that it’s over.”

  Ed’s senior picture in his high school letter jacket.

  *Mike Wiegmann.

  *The high school for the communities of Beaman, Conrad, Liscomb, Union, and Whitten, Iowa.

  CHAPTER 14

  THE FIRST FAMILY VACATION (EVER)

  I once had a person tell me, “Thomas, you are the luckiest man I know.” I just smiled and inside said, “Thank you, God.”

  ED THOMAS

  LIFE DID NOT SLOW DOWN FOR ED AFTER THE 2008 FOOTBALL season ended. He found himself busier than ever with school duties and with the design of the new gym, wrestling room, weight room, and locker rooms. Like the outdoor facilities, he wanted to make the gym state-of-the art, with a seating capacity of at least two thousand. He had an ulterior motive. As Ed laid out his plans for the gym, he did it with the hope that someday he could persuade Aaron to move back to Parkersburg and take over as A-P’s athletic director and basketball coach. Ed wanted to have his son nearby, but more than that, he wanted to someday coach his grandsons, just as he had coached his sons.

  One evening in early December, Jan interrupted Ed’s planning sessions and announced, “We’re going on a family vacation. I’m going to set it up. If ever we needed to get away, now is the time.”