Sports in brief: Slain coach’s team plays

Prep football: An Iowa high school football team ran onto the field Friday for their first game since coach Ed Thomas was killed. They ran through a tunnel formed by hundreds of Thomas’s former players that stretched more than 75 yards.

Emotions ran high at a pregame ceremony honoring Thomas, who coached Aplington- Parkersburg High in northeast Iowa for 34 seasons and was named the NFL’s High School Coach of the Year in 2005. He sent four players to the NFL.

The game, won by Aplington-Parkersburg 30-14 over Dike-New Hartford, was broadcast nationally on ESPN from the small town of Parkersburg, about 80 miles northeast of Des Moines.

Ed Thomas’s two sons – Aaron, who took over as the school’s athletic director, and Todd, who returned as an assistant – shared a brief handshake just before kickoff.

Among the players bursting onto the field was senior lineman Scott Becker. His brother, Mark Becker, who also played for Thomas, has been charged with first-degree murder in Thomas’s death. His trial is set for Sept. 15, although his lawyer has claimed he isn’t mentally fit to stand trial.

Associated Press

Pokes don’t have to hike boards

NFL: Jerry Jones can keep his video boards right where they are, at least for this season.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on Friday clarified rules on punts that ricochet off the high-definition monitors hanging over most of the field at the new Cowboys Stadium. Perhaps the key part of his announcement is that the guidelines cover only this season, an indication the league may force Jones to raise the boards before the 2010 season, which ends with the Super Bowl in his building.

Associated Press

No helmets, no pads, so no game

College football: Two days before St. Paul’s College in Charleston, W.Va., was supposed to open the 2009 football season, the Tigers canceled today’s contest with West Virginia Wesleyan. The reason, West Virginia Wesleyan athletic director Ken Tyler said Friday, was a lack of equipment.

“I’m flabbergasted and disappointed for our players,” Tyler said.

Tyler said St. Paul’s A.D. Leroy Bacote called him with the news Thursday, less than 24 hours before the Wesleyan team was scheduled to travel 341 miles to play the game in South Hill, Va.

Division II St. Paul’s had ordered helmets and pads – but the shipment hadn’t arrived yet.

Tyler said he asked Bacote how the team practiced without helmets and pads and was told the players did calisthenics in shorts and T-shirts.

Bacote declined comment Friday when reached at his office.

Associated Press