Here is a release from Sports Illustarted about their next issue:

(NEW YORK - June 30, 2009) - This week's July 6, 2009, issue of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, on newsstands tomorrow, features Ed Thomas, head football coach at Aplington-Parkersburg (Iowa) High School, with the billing A GOOD MAN DOWN - TRAGEDY IN THE HEARTLAND: THE MURDER OF A BELOVED HIGH SCHOOL COACH. It was Thomas who had led the townspeople of Parkersburg out of the rubble of a tornado last year, showed them how to live a Christian life and brought honor to a football field he mowed himself. What they can't understand is why Thomas was gunned down by a former player (page 32).

SI senior writer Lee Jenkins documents the untold grief that this tiny town has recently endured: "Parkersburg is a place where an upstanding person is usually described as a good Christian and an out-of-towner is asked, in the most casual way possible, what religion he practices. But even people in Parkersburg are having a hard time wrapping their faith around what God has wrought in the past 13 months. On May 25, 2008, a tornado with winds exceeding 200 mph cut a hole three quarters of a mile wide in the heart of Parkersburg, killing eight people, destroying 220 homes and leveling the high school campus. Then, on Wednesday, June 24, the most recognized figure in town was gunned down by a 24-year-old Aplington-Parkersburg graduate named Mark Becker, who played football for Thomas; whose father, Dave, played football for Thomas; and whose younger brother Scott is currently on the team. Dave and his wife, Joan, attend First Congregational Church, same as the Thomases, and Joan had spoken at Sunday school on June 21 about the demons her son was struggling with. Thomas, who had counseled Mark Becker in the past, bowed his head and prayed for him. 'Getting hit back-to-back like we have-one year and then the next-it just doesn't seem fair,' said Alex Hornbuckle, the Falcons' star running back. 'I keep asking, Why? Why does this keep happening to us?' "

It was Thomas who galvanized the town into rebuilding after last year's tornado, but his value to Parkersburg was established long before, while he was on his way to winning 292 games in 37 seasons as the Falcons' coach.