There are probably fewer misnomers in the lexicon of sports as ironic as “Runner-Up.” Heads hanging. Eyes all red. Red, white and wet. It should be called, “Runner Down.” Just ask Spanish Fort.

A group of young men did their best, overcame a head-coaching change and the annual attrition of graduation to get back to high school sports Mecca: State. Getting there and coming up short is, as Toro coach Brent Boyd said, “Sad, but it is what it is.”

And what it is, is, reality. Second place feels bad because first place is better. Only first feels the way we want to feel. No one I know wants to be third either—until they come in fourth. It makes second look almost sweet. But after owning the 5A baseball title for three-straight seasons, mere proximity to victory is not enough. Just getting to the title series is great, but never great enough.

And so the Toros are completely entitled to feel terrible—but not for long. Hold your horns high. And that goes for the fans and communities of Spanish Fort, Baldwin County and the Gulf Coast. All of us are clearly well represented by talented and gracious athletes who went down swinging. Perhaps their parents, teachers and coaches who know them best should be the proudest.

The Toros conducted themselves with total class which can be a challenge for the less mature at any age. Unfortunately they don’t give trophies for class. And that’s where the up-sides of reality really kick in.

So, they brought home a different color trophy this year. As the Stones sang, “You can’t always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you need.” I don’t know who first said, “You can’t win them all.” But why would any normal person want to or want to play someone who does or want to watch.

A dose of real life before graduation is a good course in learning that things don’t always go your way when you want them to no matter how much you work for it.

For seniors Reagan Eubanks, Tyler Trammel and Ryan Roberts, we all feel the most pain. But believe it or not, the blessings of learning how to manage the pain of loss now can pay off in the future. It may not be the most beloved tool in our “Life-After-High-School” survival kit, but an important one. Hate to say it, but it’s likely we will all be feeling like a runner up again sooner than we would like. At least it sounds better than Runner Down.

Tony Whitehead is an award-winning writer who covers Eastern Shore sports for GCN. Reach him at twhitehead@gulfcoastnewspapers.com