PARKERSBURG - They had hoped to step onto the softball field this week ready to play.

Instead, several members of the Aplington-Parkersburg High School girls softball team mourned the burdens recently dropped on the shoulders of many in "Falcon Country."

Right fielder Carly Russell, pitcher Meghan Flanigan and catcher Molly Stock chose a familiar place to ponder the community's recent losses in the wake of Sunday's tornado. On Tuesday, the three stood shoulder-to-shoulder on the pitcher's mound, staring tearfully at home plate.

The softball diamond, not far from the storm-damaged high school, remained littered with debris. The fence, which the team recently helped erect, is damaged.

"This is our home in the summers," Russell said. "We are here 24-7.

"To some people it's just a field. To us it's life."

The girls formed a solemn huddle. They also launched an impromptu, seconds-long practice.

Just over the hill, a red Aplington-Parkersburg flag whips in the wind. Typically displayed during softball games, the flag stands over a pile of rubble that once made up Stock's house.

Nearby, students, faculty and administrators spent Monday and Tuesday salvaging items from the high school. Some left personal cleanup efforts to assist. Community members also pitched in to carry out instruments, student records, state trophies and furniture.

"The students helped all day yesterday and today," said Superintendent Jon Thompson. "I'm so impressed with our kids."

The unified effort lifted the spirits of many in the midst of unfathomable destruction.

Sunday's tornado, declared an EF5 on Tuesday by the National Weather Service, killed five in Parkersburg and two in New Hartford. The storm, with winds up to 200 mph, damaged 400 homes in Parkersburg, destroying half of them and also hurt 21 businesses.

School administrators expect they will have to construct a new high school, though no official decisions had been made, Thompson said.

The damage is obvious.

A crumbled east wall and absent roof allows a clean view over a broken stage and clear through to the inside wall of the gymnasium with pictures of student athletes still in tact. Mangled lighting and tangled curtains lay on a broken stage.

Students and faculty marvel that a little more than a week ago, hundreds filled the gymnasium for a graduation ceremony.

Other parts of the building also experienced damage and some is inaccessible.

Clocks in some debris-filled classrooms visible from the outside are stopped at about five minutes to 5 o'clock.

South of the building, student athlete Joey McCracken manages to identify pieces of weight-lifting equipment amongst the wreckage.

"It's not good," McCracken said.

"I just want this to be back," he added.

Jenzen Vander Holt, a cheerleader, spent Tuesday cleaning up the wreckage at the home of Bonnie Wessels, her grandmother. Wessels weathered the storm in a part of town relatively undisturbed by the tornado, said Vander Holt, but two of the teenager's relatives remain hospitalized after a debris fell onto them in a basement.

Despite personal losses and responsibilities, Vander Holt also felt it important to pay a visit to the high school. She teared up at the sight of the new score board hanging over and other losses.

Vander Holt, her sister Jordie, and mother Lesley, said the school district's losses will impact the town as a whole.

"The community takes big pride in our athletics," Jenzen said. "We are all like one big family and when all of this happened, everyone came together."

Education and athletics will inevitably look different for a while, Thompson said, but he anticipates students will adjust to the changes like champs. When classes start up again in the fall, students and teachers may utilize portable structures and other district buildings, administrators said.

But Aplington-Parkersburg will bounce back, students and administrators vow, with the ultimate goal of keeping "our kids and our programs in our own towns," Thompson said.

"We are going to rebuild," he said. "We are not going to share with another district."

Indoor and outdoors athletic facilities, from the weight room, to the balll diamonds to the football field, track and stands, all demand attention.

Baseball and softball will continue this season and players will utilize diamonds in Aplington until Parkersburg fields are ready, Thompson said. The football program will also continue.

Neighboring superintendents and businesses have also acted generously, offering the wounded district sporting equipment, facilities and labor.

Football coach Ed Thomas spent time helping out at the school even as his own home lay in shambles. Thomas said he left the high school when the sirens sounded on Sunday, making it to his home just north of Iowa Highway 57 with five minutes to spare.

While saddened by the vast material devestation, fields and classrooms can be fixed.

"It's the lives of those people in our community that can't be replaced," Thomas said.

Rehashing the storm periodically prompts tears. Thomas, like others in town, doesn't want to think about how much worse the damage might have been.

"I can't imagine what it would have been like if it had been a school day," he said.

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver said Tuesday the state is "very interested" in helping the Aplington-Parkersburg school district after its high school was destroyed in the storm.

"We understand the pain and the loss with that high school, and so we're going to work together with the local officials and look at some options," Culver said, raising the possibility that the Iowa Legislature might be able to help the district out next session.

Contact Karen Heinselman at (319) 291-1581 or karen.heinselman@wcfcourier.com.