COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - It hurts.
There's no two ways about it, and after that last whistle Saturday afternoon there was no way around it.
It sank in rather quickly as the Marion County Warriors gazed through watery eyes and sweaty bangs at the guys dancing and leaping and whooping and hollering across the way.
Sure, there were some hanging heads and even more quivering lips and hands swiftly and roughly swiping at tears they couldn't hold back. The blustering wind, forboding clouds, dropping temperatures and dour, damp conditions couldn't begin to mirror their misery.
A quality opponent, four turnovers and too many squandered opportunities will do that.
Perhaps this morning they'll feel better, and maybe by tomorrow they will have acquired a better perspective on this whirlwind season that was for them and the folks in Jasper.
Maybe when they look back in years to come they'll think of their team as state finalist rather than state runner-up, as the first bunch of Warriors to make it to the BlueCross Bowl Cookeville-style and the seventh bunch in Marion County history to play for a state football championship.
They didn't get that gold ball reserved for champions, but they have regained respect for those in the Purple.
Ricky Ross brought and spurred high expectations when he arrived in Jasper last spring as the Warriors' third head coach in four seasons, and he and his team left Tennessee Tech's Tucker Stadium with the similar expectations.
"We accomplished a ton, and if they ever doubted it, I think the kids can see that hard work pays off," Ross said.
"I'll remember everything from the hardest of the early-morning practices to the final seconds of this game," bruising two-way lineman Hayden Tudors whispered as he struggled mightily to maintain his composure.
Will he remember the friendships?
"It wasn't friendships. It was brotherhood," he declared with a fierce passion.
Blake Zeman, the 5-foot-9 bowling ball of a running back and linebacker and the program's unofficial poster child for most of the past three seasons, kept his helmet on for several minutes between the final whistle and trophy presentations.
He didn't want to share - or have witnesses to - the emotional dip he was enduring.
"I wouldn't trade anybody on this team. I have enjoyed every moment with guys who came to work hard every day," Zeman said. "We got here for a reason and just didn't have a good final outcome. I'll remember all the guys I played with, all the battles we won and all the good times we had, but, yes, I'll remember falling short of the state championship."
There will be a couple of weeks before the Warriors can get back in the weight room and begin working toward 2015, but when they do they'll take with them words of wisdom from both Tudors and Zeman.
"Keep on pushing. Work harder so this doesn't happen next year," Zeman said.
And, added Tudors, "Cherish every moment and play every play like it's your last."
Ross's words will touch an emotional chord for years to come.
"These seniors - I thank them. I love them and I want them to become good husbands and fathers - good men. I appreciate what they do and what they've done," he said. "Did you reach your ultimate goal? No, but if you shoot for the stars you're going to end up high. And we're pretty high, just not as high as we want to be."
Tudors, Zeman and their fellow seniors will look back on a bleak Saturday and eventually tell those who return and those who will eventually fill their shoes, "Finish what we started."
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.