?pBob Smeins lives on the hillside overlooking Iowa’s other area of dreams. On Friday nights in the fall Smeins has usually liked to sit on his deck and view the Aplington-Parkersburg High Falcons play football. The rest of the year, he liked to sit on his deck and watch a legend have a tendency to the grass. It has been called the Carpet, the Sacred Acre and, formally, Ed Thomas Field, after the 58-year-old coach who laid down the sod. Thomas walked that field every early morning, yanking weeds,49ers, killing dandelions, fertilizing the soil, kneeling down to research blades of grass for dreaded brown spotsthe surest sign of chemical imbalance. Before the college installed sprinklers, Thomas carried a hose. Following the school employed custodians for the field, Thomas still insisted on mowing it himself, against the grain from the goal line to the 5-lawn line, with the grain from the 5 to the 10 and so on, just like groundskeepers did it in the professionals. "I would wave to him down there sometimes," says Smeins, a 76-yr-previous retiree, "and he wouldn’t wave back. He was so targeted on that field. It was his life."Bob Smeins lives on the hillside overlooking Iowa’s other field of dreams. On Friday nights in the drop Smeins has always liked to sit on his deck and view the Aplington-Parkersburg High Falcons perform soccer. The rest of the year, he liked to sit on his deck and watch a legend tend to the grass. It has been called the Carpet, the Sacred Acre and, formally, Ed Thomas Area, following the fifty eight-year-old coach who laid down the sod. Thomas walked that field every morning, yanking weeds, killing dandelions, fertilizing the soil, kneeling down to study blades of grass for dreaded brown spotsthe surest sign of chemical imbalance. Before the school installed sprinklers, Thomas carried a hose. Following the college hired custodians for the field, Thomas still insisted on mowing it himself, in opposition to the grain from the objective line to the five-yard line, with the grain from the 5 to the 10 and so on, just like groundskeepers did it in the professionals. "I would wave to him down there sometimes," states Smeins, a 76-year-previous retiree, "and he wouldn’t wave back again. He was so focused on that area. It was his life."The soccer group was allowed to operate on the field but never walk. Others had been allowed to operate on the track that encircles the field, but by no means on the area by itself. During track meets, Thomas strung a rope around the field, in situation opposing groups did not know the rules. "It’s probably the best area in the state," said Aplington-Parkersburg High principal Dave Meyer, "except maybe for the College of Iowa." The area has standard-problem metal bleachers, no box workplace, no fancy scoreboard. What makes it unique, what tends to make it sacred, is the love that Thomas poured into the turf.Last Friday morning, though, the field was looking a little neglected. No 1 was mowing the grass. No one was picking the weeds. A few troublesome mushrooms had invaded the sidelines. So Smeins did what he realized Thomas would have done. He went down from his house on the hill, and in his sneakers and straw hat, he walked into the long red barn with the white roof that stands just behind the football field. The barn was meant to shop college buses, but it was used this year as a short-term excess weight room. That’s where Thomas kept the large orange garden mower he used to cut the grass. It is also exactly where he was shot and killed two days earlier.Parkersburg sits among the cornfields, soybean farms and silos of northern Iowa. It’s 1 of numerous small towns in this state that seem to be left more than from another period. Patrons at the Kwik Star are permitted to pump their gas before they pay. Guys at Tom’s Barber Store hang out and speak following they get their buzz cuts. Some residents say they have not locked their doors since the 1980s, which is comprehensible, considering that till final week there had not been a murder right here since the ’20s. Parkersburg is a place exactly where an upstanding person is generally described as a good Christian and an out-of-towner is asked, in the most casual way feasible, what religion he practices. But even individuals in Parkersburg are getting a difficult time wrapping their faith about what God has wrought in the past thirteen months.On Might twenty five, 2008, a tornado with winds exceeding 200 mph reduce a hole three quarters of a mile broad in the coronary heart of Parkersburg, killing eight individuals, destroying 220 homes and leveling the higher college campus. Then, just this past week, on June 24, the most acknowledged figure in city was gunned down, allegedly by a 24-yr-old Aplington-Parkersburg graduate named Mark Becker, who played soccer for Thomas whose father, Dave, played soccer for Thomas and whose younger brother, Scott,christopher hitchens, is presently on the team. Dave and his wife, Joan, go to Initial Congregational Church, exact same as the Thomases, and Joan had spoken at Sunday college on June 21 about the demons her son was having difficulties with. Thomas, who experienced counseled Mark Becker in the past, bowed his head and prayed for him."Getting hit back-to-back again like we haveone yr and then the nextit just doesn’t appear honest," stated Alex Hornbuckle, the Falcons’ star operating back. "I keep inquiring,war in iraq, Why? Why does this maintain happening to us?"Thomas sent sermons when ministers were absent. He consoled husbands whose wives had been unwell. He presented child boys with Long term FALCON certificates. He taught children to play soccer, sure, but he also taught driver’s ed, creating his students discover behind the wheel of a John Deere mower prior to he gave them keys to a vehicle. He labored every day but Xmas, except this yr, when he took a holiday to Hawaii and complained that he could not relax. In 37 seasons he won 292 video games, most of them four yards at a time, with his old-fashioned wing T offense. The Falcons had been never especially big or fast, and they hardly ever threw, but they were disciplined, conditioned and nation-powerful. Before every play they would sprint to the line of scrimmage and try to snap the ball prior to the defense was arranged. When Thomas sensed a touchdown, he would call out, "Take it to the barn!" in his high-pitched howl, wire-rimmed eyeglasses bouncing on the bridge of his nose.Thomas won two state titles and coached 4 current NFL gamers, which is beautiful when you consider that there are only one,900 individuals in all of Parkersburg. Everybody in town, it appears, either played for Thomas or has a relative who did. Of the 220 students now at the college, ninety are on the soccer group. Even Jeff Jacobson, a unique agent working the Thomas murder case for the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, is a former booster whose son, Andy, played for Thomas. "You know how the Bible says to develop your home on the rock?" stated Chris Luhring, the Parkersburg police chief, who played for Thomas. "He was the rock that this community was constructed on."The evening Thomas died, two,500 people showed up at the area for a vigil, including some of his staunchest opponents. "He could defeat you 42– without demoralizing you," stated Bruce Wall, coach of Jessup Higher.On the fence surrounding the apply area, dozens of red Dixie cups had been shoved between chain links to spell out COACH T., followed by a coronary heart. In the windows of a home on Fourth Street, handwritten signs read WE WILL Miss U COACH and GOD BE WITH THE THOMASES. At First Congregational Church a message hung on the door: THE SANCTUARY IS Open FOR PRAYER. Mothers and fathers of gamers struggled to speak to their sons, and the sons struggled to talk at all. "Stanley will not speak to me, and I do not know what to say to him," John Tuve said of his son, who is a increasing senior wide receiver and defensive back.