Coaches who've won multiple state titles typically play it safe with regard to ranking their championship seasons. It isn't a game they're willing to play, at least publicly.

But let's be honest. There's something extra special about a program's first-time No. 1 finish.

Consider this from Chris Cameron, architect of five-time Division I boys' lacrosse king Bishop Guertin: “Winning championships, it never gets old. They're all great and special in their own way,” the coach of the Nashua power said. “But, in 2005, we had nothing to lose (against Pinkerton Academy of Derry) and no expectations. That one will always be up there.”

Of this year's half-dozen NHIAA champions, Bedford's boys (Div. II) and the girls at Merrimack (Div. II) and Windham (Div. III) cracked the column that tracks state titles.

“This being our first, it's obviously the best,” said Bedford coach Matt Guerard, whose boys won all 19 games they played.

Bedford's 2010 team lost the Division II final, a 14-13 overtime ouster against Bow. A year ago, the Bulldogs lost their Final Four bout with Souhegan of Amherst, 13-12, in the last seconds of regulation.

Guerard's playoff heartbreak dated to the 2009-10 winter season.

The former boys' hockey coach watched his skaters nearly knot the Division III championship in the final seconds. Kennett of Conway survived, 2-1.

“The whole time, the pressure was on me. No doubt. It weighed on my mind from the start of season … all the way to the championship game,” said Guerard, whose team topped St. Thomas Aquinas of Dover, 12-4. “One thing I never did was ... put that pressure on the kids.”

Merrimack coach Beth Rogers competed in the final four times during her playing days at the unified Nashua High.

Rogers won titles in 1998 and 1999, the first and second years the NHIAA recognized a girls' lacrosse champion. (Two divisions were created in 2002.) How did the 2012 campaign compare? “Winning it as a coach has trumped winning it as a player,” said Rogers, whose team went 18-2 overall after a runner-up finish in 2011. “It's such a reward, this first championship — for the school, for the program. It would be tough to match the overwhelming emotion of this one.”

Windham's rise to No. 1 was rapid. Led by coach Jill Bartlett and the first senior class in school history, the Jaguars went 17-0 overall.

The program's perfect season came one year after a sub-.500 finish. The 2011 Jags went 7-8, a mark that included a 24-17 quarterfinal loss as the eight-and-final tournament seed.

Guerard, Rogers and Bartlett may, in time, be forced to dodge the question of which title-winning season tops their lists.

But, as Guertin's Cameron confirmed, it's a problem any coach would welcome.

“Now (statewide sentiment for BG lacrosse is) the exact opposite,” Cameron said. “It's like being the Yankees. Everyone wants to see them go down.”

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TITLE NO. 5 certainly makes BG's boys (18-3 overall) the team of the past 10 years. The Cardinals own half of the Division I hardware doled out in that time.

BG celebrated championships in 2005, 2008, 2010, 2011 and — on the strength of an 18-3 spring powered by a dominant defense — 2012.

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NO PROGRAM has won more titles than Concord (six) since the inaugural season of NHIAA girls' lacrosse in '98.

“Each game, they took as a challenge — and met it,” Concord coach Terry Anderson said.

Here's a challenge for the girls who will return from the Crimson Tide's 19-0 title team: Repeat as champs.

Concord, after all, won its first five titles in bunches (2000-02, 2005-06).

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OUTGOING COACH Bob Zimmerman said he spent the last three weeks of Hollis/Brookline's championship season “building mental toughness” within his boys.

“We borrowed Nike's phrase, 'Just do it,'” Zimmerman said. “It got the point across to react and execute.”

Did they ever in the Division III final. The Cavaliers (17-2 overall) erased a three-goal hole in the fourth quarter, forced OT, and courtesy of Trevor Kerkhoff, worked a 9-8 win over Pelham.

The Pythons doubled up H/B, 10-5, in the regular season. It was the game that forced Zimmerman to strengthen his squad's resolve.

“I knew the team had the potential,” Zimmerman said. “I just had to figure out how to get them to execute when we needed it.”

Marc Thaler covers high school lacrosse for the New Hampshire Union Leader & Sunday News. He co-hosts the “N.H. Sports Show” Saturday morning on WGIR-AM 610 and the Seacoast's 96.7. Send e-mails to mthaler@unionleader.com and follow him on Twitter: @marc_thaler.