It’s a dubious way of earning “one for the thumb.”

Pella Christian’s loss to Western Christian earned Coach Larry Hessing and the program’s fifth overall 2nd place finish in the state tournament.

Hessing says the sting of taking 2nd is all-too familiar.

“We lost some early, I guess, in our tenure here at Pella Christian to some teams which were really good, had really, good, NBA future-star quality on their team,” Hessing says. “We lost one in 2000 which was really tough to lose, having a lead in the fourth quarter and it got away from us.”

Hessing believes this year’s team was championship-caliber, but a more experienced Wolfpack team made the shots that counted in the state finals.

“This game we thought that we certainly had the capability of winning,” Hessing says. “But, Western’s a really good team, they’ve got that experience factor, and even though they were down a couple of guys, they just really played well and you have to give credit to their coaching staff as well.”

“Personally, it’s a tough one, you wonder if you’re going to get back there again, but we’ll keep digging and keep fighting for that.”

Pella Christian says farewell to eight seniors, all of which played significant time this past season.