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Leadership Legacy Friday, Oct. 14, 2016
Almost everyone in Iowa knows the story of Ed Thomas and Aplington Parkersburg. In 2008, an F5 tornado destroyed the Aplington-Parkersburg high school. One year later on June 24, 2009, head coach Ed Thomas was shot by an old student in the bus barn, which was being used by the team for weightlifting. Seven years later, on Oct. 6, the Ed Thomas Legacy Leadership Academy took place at Aplington Parkersburg High School. Each participating school paid $10 per student to come and listen to inspirational speakers tell their stories and give advice on how to be better people and leaders in their schools. The academy lasted from 9 a.m. to 1:10 p.m. Each school entered the school and was greeted with friendly faces and a complimentary doughnut breakfast. Every leader was given a green bag with booklets, T-shirts, pens and name lanyards. This year, there were five speakers: Aaron Thomas,
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Volume 57 Edition 4
Ed Thomas clinic speakers share character lessons
“Leadership without character is a failure in the leadership.”
—retired Aplington-Parkersburg teacher Ed Kerns one of the featured speakers at the clinic
Amanda Goodman, Greg Thomas, Al Kerns and Ben Jacobson. Aaron Thomas, the eldest son of the late Ed Thomas, is now the principal at Aplington Parkersburg. He was inspired to impact youth in a positive way because of what he watched his father do at practice. He told the students that, “Everyone is strategically positioned to impact those around you.” The main point carried through his whole speech is that in order to lead someone, one must have a positive relationship others. He quoted speaker John Maxwell saying, “Before anyone will follow you, there are three things a follower has to know. Do you like me, can you help me and can I trust
you?” He said answering these questions before you try to get things done can help a team work more effectively and get better results. At the end of each speech, two questions were posed to the schools as they broke into groups and discussed the points of the speaker, what they brought to the table and the questions in the booklets. The second speaker, Goodman, is a news anchor for KWWL news, and she is also an Emmy award winning journalist. She has passions in the area of women’s rights, as well as anti-bullying efforts. Goodman led with a strong message about life. “Life is not unicorns,” she said. Her main message was that as students and humans on Earth, people
have to take responsibility for their actions. She told a story of when she was a young journalist in Texas. She was getting ready one day, and her boss came in to talk to her about how poor of a job she was doing. She then announced to the whole crew that she was not to have any material on TV until further notice. “It was a real kick in the butt,” Goodman said. This lesson taught her that by doing a poor job with the task at hand, you are setting yourself up to be replaced. If you are a leader, you should bring new options to the table and work hard for the greater good of the team. If you do that, you aren’t replaceable. The next speaker, Greg Thomas, was the younger brother of Ed Thomas, and, like his nephew, was inspired to go into coaching because of the impact his brother made, as well as his college football coach. The main thing that Greg Thomas spoke on was the pride that leaders must have in
their community to be successful. “If you don’t have pride in your school, you are not going to be an effective leader. The same goes for your community,” Thomas said. His last point to the leaders was about the legacy of people everywhere. “On a tombstone, there is your name, birth date, dash, death date and a message. Out of those, the most important thing is the dash. The dash is where your life really is,” he said. The fifth speaker, Kerns, spoke in two different groups, alternating what lunch shift each school ate. Kerns is a retired teacher and coach from Parkersburg High School, and later was an assistant coach under Ed Thomas for over 30 years. Kerns spoke about the relationship of character and leadership, and how to prioritize the two. “Leadership without character is a failure in the leadership,” he said. He told ED THOMAS Continued on Page 2
Republican students torn over support for Trump Though the Never Trump campaign simply failed at their greatest aim: preventing Donald Trump from becoming the 2016 Republican nominee, the movement continues to advocate against a candidate in an election that will go down in history books as one of the most controversial and divisive elections of all time: an election with a man who is dismembering his own party and attracting a riot of supporters simultaneously. Primarily composed of Republicans unwilling to surrender their party’s characteristics that aren’t found in Trump, Never Trump supporters must make a riveting decision by election day: betray their party and vote for a Democrat or vote for the man who is causing them to think about betray-
ing their party in the first place. While many Republicans are surrendering their support for the nominee, many also continue to hold a strong grip on their beliefs and advocate against their party supporting Trump. Both sides of the argument at hand within the Republican party can be found within the minds of CFHS students. Alex Gudgeon, a junior, is one of the many Republicans who refuse to support their party’s nominee. “I think that a lot of people do not understand that Trump doesn’t represent the Republican party at all,” Gudgeon said. “The Republican people that don’t support him are leading the way for those who TORN OVER TRUMP Continued on Page 2
Marching Mastery
The marching band earned its 15th straight Division I rating at the marching band festival in Dubuque on Saturday afternoon, Oct. 8. The Tigers joined 12 other schools in achieving the top rating at the Dubuque Senior site. Dubuque was one of the eight sites around the state where bands performed. Emily Barth Photos