Donnie Arax crawled to the absolute end of the limb, yet, somehow, the person nearest to him didn't hear it crack.

"The timing was right, and this was our year to do it," said Kristine Arax, wife of the Bullard High football coach. "To be honest, I had no doubts at all."

That's good, because when her husband made it clear publicly all season that he would be dissatisfied with anything short of a Central Section Division I championship, one could only imagine what he shared under his own roof.

No problem, Kristine says: "In heart of hearts, I just believed we'd win."

They did.

Quarterfinals – 35-9 over Clovis West.

Semifinals – 23-10 over Bakersfield.

Championship – 42-31 over Centennial.

Had to be, says Donnie Arax, still not budging after a 13-0 performance that brought Bullard its first football title in the 54-year history of the school.

"I'm not sure we, as a program, would have recovered from a loss," The Bee's football Coach of the Year says. "Any loss in the playoffs would have been devastating to the program's future. That's how big that playoff run was."

Why?

"Because if you don't win that first one, you may never get there."

Recent history supports his mindset.

Bullard lost 35-28 to Bakersfield in the 2005 D-I championship.

Worse, much worse, was what followed – a humiliating 2-8 2006 season that included defeats of 75-0 to Clovis and 70-14 to Clovis West.

Arax didn't flinch.

Instead, he concentrated on two things – a freshman class that screamed relief with a 10-0 season, and stabilization of a coaching staff that paid obvious dividends this season.

"When you have a season like that [in 2006], there are cracks in the program, and those cracks can go back six or seven years," he says. "Those guys were part of the old system.

"What got us through that season was that freshman group. And what that season did to me was, while I was working long hours, I had to make better decisions to put kids in the right positions at an early age and work harder on every little detail."

What a rebound it has been.

The Knights have not only gone 30-6 since 2006 – improving Arax's 10-year record at the school to 75-39-1 – they've gone 10-3 against Clovis Unified schools.

And, next to the 2009 title, nothing is more satisfying to Arax, a 1982 Bullard graduate with a long memory.

"In those early years," he says, referring to the front end of his Knights coaching career, "our kids were petrified when they played Clovis schools. You could see it in their eyes. Now the tide has turned. When we play Clovis schools, our kids not only aren't intimidated, they're upset if they don't win."

This year, Bullard was the bully.

The Knights landed six players on The Bee All-Star first team and, from quarterback Kerr Taubler to linebackers Daniel Snelling and Caleb Justice, they were tough dudes who could deliver a blow.

"They brought it, they hit," Arax says. "And the other thing that stood out was how cool they were. They knew they were going to win the Valley championship."

Arax, 45, can't say when he'll win another. But he has a pretty good idea about this – there won't be another 2006.

"Should never happen again," he says. "I'm too old for that."