School: Buchanan High

He's qualified because: Delivered his third Central Section Division I baseball title in six years after the Bears conquered their greatest obstacle — a Clovis West team ranked No. 1 in the section, No. 2 in the state and No. 8 nationally, and one that had beaten the Bears three times. The 7-5 victory in the section championship game capped a 28-5 season that pushed Donald’s career record to 278-88 (.760) in 12 years at Buchanan and also landed him Cal-Hi Sports’ state Coach of the Year honor.

He said it: "Tom's program has been a model of consistency and this year was no different. His team played their best on the biggest stage." — Clovis West coach Kevin Patrick

With six junior starters returning from a Central Section championship team, it would be understandable for Buchanan High baseball coach Tom Donald to look forward to his team's 2011 season opener in late February.

But he's going to hold onto 2010 for awhile - forever, really.

For all his memories as a football and baseball standout at Redwood High and College of the Sequoias, for all the highlights of a 12-year coaching career at Buchanan, what played out this spring - specifically, in an exhilarating two-week run in late May - trumps them all.

"It's been quite a year in the life of my family," says Donald, The Bee's baseball Coach of the Year. Reducing the year to 10 delightful days:

May 18: Donald and wife Debbie, following an impromptu red-eye flight from San Francisco to Tampa, Fla., arrive at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg just in time to see son Jason single in his major-league debut for the Cleveland Indians against the Tampa Bay Rays.

May 25: After following his son for a week (and missing Buchanan's quarterfinal playoff game), Tom Donald returns home for the Bears' come-from-behind, eight-inning, 7-6 win over Centennial in the D-I semifinals.

May 26: Tom and Debbie drive to Southern California to see daughter Katie graduate at Long Beach State.

May 27: Buchanan bolts to a 3-0 first-inning lead against Clovis West's unbeaten Eric Karch, sees the nation's eighth-ranked Golden Eagles respond with four runs in the bottom of the inning, but hammers away for a 7-5 upset and the section championship.

Buchanan finished No. 3 in the state rankings and No. 20 in the nation, and Donald was named Cal-Hi Sports State Coach of the Year. ("I was totally blindsided by that one," he says.)

And now The Bee honor: "It's very humbling because there are so many good coaches in the Central Valley. I'm just glad to be part of the association and fraternity."

Donald says he got an early indoctrination to coaching and teaching from his father, former coach and official Bill Donald.

There would be many more influences, none greater than Roger Kelly, for whom he played football at Redwood (Class of 1981).

"There are days I feel like I'm Roger Kelly on the baseball field," Donald says. "He had a demanding style and didn't cut corners. There was one way do to things - the right way. You outworked your opponent. The intensity he brought to practice is what I bring today."

Wanting "to get a foot in the door at Clovis Unified," he became a volunteer freshman football assistant at Clovis High in 1985.

Ultimately, he would coach lower-level football and baseball at Clovis West - "I thought I would be a Clovis West guy the rest of my career" - before shifting to Buchanan, assisting Bears football under Mike Vogt and eventually replacing Greg Funk as the school's varsity baseball coach in 1999.

He says he has "picked the brains" of college baseball coaches such as Bob Bennett and Mike Batesole at Fresno State, George Horton (formerly Cal State Fullerton, now Oregon) and Andy Lopez at Arizona, where Jason Donald played.

"I just feel I've been lucky to have been around good baseball people," says Donald, whose Bears also won section titles in 2005 and '06, and placed second consecutively from 2001-03.

"I check my ego at the door," he says, "be a sponge, learn as much as I can and pass it on to the players."