JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- All-State Meester.
Brad Meester laughed at those words Wednesday, much as he has many times since he heard them 15 years ago.
Even now, when the Jacksonville Jaguars center gets together with his old high school teammates, they laugh at that line.
All-State Meester.
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| Brad Meester, with Jags coach Jack Del Rio, says high school coach Ed Thomas was more than an X's and O's guy. (Getty Images) |
Meester and his high school teammates still find humor in those words, which came from his coach, a man who influenced an entire football-crazy city in Iowa. He was Aplington-Parkersburg High coach Ed Thomas, who was tragically killed by a 24-year-old alleged gunman Wednesday, shocking a city and a long list of players who revered him.
"I still can't believe it happened," said Meester, who was told of the shooting by a Jaguars employee during a morning lift.
Meester saw his old coach two weeks ago at the wedding of an old teammate, and he's thankful he did. Players once again laughed about the All-State Meester story from Meester's senior year.
At a halftime, Meester was admittedly struggling. So Thomas lit into him, screaming how he all supposed to be "All-State Meester."
"We didn't go to the locker rooms, and we were just on the sideline, and there were all these fans around and he was just screaming at me," Meester said. "That's one of those moments that you and your teammates don't forget."
Meester was All-State as a senior. As a junior, he was part of a team that won the state championship and also included Packers outside linebacker Aaron Kampman and Lions defensive end Jared DeVries.
Getting three NFL players from the same team in a city of 2,000 people is simply amazing. It's also a tribute to Thomas, who also coached Broncos center Casey Wiegmann, who is older than the other three.
• Coach killed; ex-player charged | Hundreds mourn coach
Meester said he had just 70 kids in his graduating class, which was about average. And there are four NFL players from that school?
"I think you have to give coach Thomas a lot of the credit for that," Meester said. "He's done so much for me personally and professionally just as well as he's done for everybody that's gone through there. I think one of the big things he's done for everybody, it's not so much the X's and O's that he taught us about football but it's the stuff that he taught us that pertains to real life. It's about being men, that has meant so much. He taught us so many things. He taught us things like hard work, just taking pride in what we do and the value of family. He treated each and every one of us like we were his kids."
And now he is gone. It's the second major tragedy for the town in just over a year. Last year, it was hit by a major tornado. It destroyed the school and tore up the football field.
After it happened, the NFL players sprang into motion. The sold hats with the school logo to help raise money to rebuild. Meester remembers seeing Thomas last year putting his field back together. He also found a barn way out of town to house his weights so the team could continue to get ready, even if the school wouldn't be rebuilt until this fall.
"He wasn't going to allow them not to be ready," Meester said. "That's how he did things."
Meester last saw Thomas at that wedding two weeks ago (the groom was now a coach at the school). They talked. They laughed. They exchanged football banter.
"He always had things to say about the way things were going in football," Meester said.
He paused for a second, then smiled.
"He was always complaining about the way we block in the NFL," Meester said. "He said we used our hands too much. He liked to teach the old school way of blocking, using your shoulders. Every time I saw him he mentioned that."
Meester plans to attend the funeral. There is no way he wouldn't be there. This was a man who helped shape his life -- and those of many others.
"He truly did care for each and every one of us, and that's one of the greatest things about him that will always be remembered," Meester said.
That and the stories, like All-State Meester, which probably mean a lot more to a group of men today than they did yesterday.
