One of Mike Huff’s first memories is of a noisy and rambunctious Civic Stadium in Portland as Crook County walloped Lake Oswego’s Lakeridge High 28-7 in the 1984 AAA high school state football championship game.

“I was only 2 years old,” says Huff, who was born and raised in Prineville and is now an assistant football coach at Mountain View High in Bend. “My only real memories are that it was really loud and a lot was going on.”

Huff and the Cougars hope for a similar environment Saturday when Mountain View plays Sherwood at Hillsboro Stadium for the Class 5A state title. While Central Oregon has produced state champions in a wide array of sports, titles in football have been relatively rare — and quite so at the large-school classifications.

Crook County’s 1984 championship at the AAA level, then Oregon’s highest prep sports classification, is the last time a team from one of the area’s large schools advanced to a football state final. With their 5A state final appearance Saturday evening in Hillsboro, the 2011 Mountain View Cougars will become only the third Central Oregon team ever to play for a large-school classification state championship. In addition to Crook County’s title 27 years ago, Bend High won Oregon’s first prep football state championship — in 1940.

Crook County, Culver and Sisters have all claimed other football state championships, but at small-school classifications.

“Especially in high school, you’ve got to have some luck involved and certain things have to happen at certain times,” says Cougars head coach Steve Turner, who has been an assistant coach with two Oregon state football champions: North Medford in the old Class 4A in 1993, and Cascade in the AA classification in 1980.

“But the bottom line,” Turner adds, “is having great kids. That’s the key to the whole thing. You can be the best coach in the world, but you’ve got to have the players.”

Mountain View teams had advanced to the state semifinal round four times without a victory before the Cougars took out Marist of Eugene 31-14 last Friday to earn a spot in this year’s 5A state final. Mountain View, which first fielded a varsity team in 1979, lost to Churchill of Eugene 42-0 in the 1985 semis and to Sprague of Salem 39-29 in the 1999 semifinal round. Cougar teams also were eliminated in the semifinal round in 2007, 46-0 by West Albany, and last year, 42-22 by Sherwood.

Mountain View assistant principal Sean Corrigan started his teaching and coaching career at Crook County in 1984 and was part of the Cowboys’ dream season.

“I got to go along for the ride,” says Corrigan, a Mountain View graduate who coached football and basketball at his alma mater before going into administration. “Yeah, there’s a lot of similarities (between that Crook County squad and the Cougars). Both teams had a tough playoff loss the year before. They both were kind of knocking on the door and had high expectations for the next year, setting their sights on playing in December.”

“You have to have kids that are a special group,” says Clyde Powell, who started the Mountain View football program when the school first opened in 1978 and coached the team through the 1993 season. Powell, now the athletic director and head football coach at Sisters High, was an assistant coach with the Outlaws when they won back-to-back Class 3A state titles in 1998 and 1999. Powell also was an assistant coach for Linfield College in 2004 when the Wildcats went undefeated and claimed the NCAA Division III national championship.

“Looking back when we won state at Sisters or even that semifinal team at Mountain View (in 1985) or the national championship team at Linfield, everything just came together,” Powell says. “Kids that step into a situation where someone else gets hurt prove very capable. Everything’s just got to be right, up to the scheduling to the coaching staff, to the support the parents give the kids. There’s so many intangibles that go into winning a state title or even going deep into the playoffs.”

Mountain View took its licks in its first year in the Intermountain Conference in 1979, going 0-9 overall and 0-8 in league play. Under Powell, the Cougars gradually became more competitive, beating Baker on the road in 1980 for their first league win and advancing to the state playoffs for the first time in 1982. Counting that first postseason berth 29 years ago, Mountain View has earned a spot in the state playoffs 20 times — including each of the last six seasons.

“I’m sure there’s a couple thousand other guys feeling the same way I do,” Powell says. “I’m happy for Steve (Turner) and those kids, and all the guys that have ever worn a Mountain View uniform.”

Similar to that Crook County team of almost three decades ago, the Cougars hope to become a part of local history with a win Saturday against Sherwood.

“There’s a tremendous amount of similarities,” Turner says about this year’s Mountain View team and the North Medford and Cascade championship squads he coached. “You look at 99 percent of championship teams, they have great camaraderie and chemistry. Intangibles you can’t measure. All that goes into a great team.”

Central Oregon state football finalists at a glance

1940 — Bend High defeats Bill Bowerman-coached Medford High team 20-7 in Medford in the first Oregon football state championship game ever played

1952 — Crook County wins A-2 championship over St. Helens, 25-12, at Portland’s Multnomah Stadium

1953 — Crook County posts back-to-back A-2 titles with 31-14 victory over Estacada

1954 — Glide knocks off Culver, 39-14, in six-man title game

1955 — Culver wins its first state title, winning six-man championship game 32-14 in a rematch with Glide

1956 — Culver repeats at the six-man level, defeating Alsea 33-26 in title game

1957 — Sisters blows out Alsea 73-27 in six-man state championship contest, setting what was then a state record for most points scored in a title game

1958 — Alsea wins six-man championship with 38-20 win over Culver

1959 — Sisters wins Oregon’s last six-man state championship, defeating St. Paul 32-22 at Sisters High

1961 — Sisters shuts out Ione 19-0 in eight-man title game

1974 — Culver tops Prospect 60-34 in B championship game at Culver High

1975 — Culver defeats Prospect 32-8 in B title game rematch

1976 — Culver beats Mohawk 50-40 in B final shootout

1984 — Crook County wins AAA state title, Oregon’s highest classification at the time, with a 28-6 victory over Lakeridge of Lake Oswego

1997 — Powers routes Culver 54-8 in 1A championship game

1998 — Sisters defeats Central 33-28 at Autzen Stadium for 3A state title

1999 — Sisters repeats in 3A, blowing out Burns 35-6 at Portland’s Civic Stadium

2006 — Siuslaw knocks off Sisters 21-14 in overtime in 4A state final

2007 — Sisters loses 36-28 in showdown with Sky-Em League rival Marist in 4A championship game

2007 — Culver holds off Heppner, 10-6, in 2A state final

2008 — Knappa defeats Culver, 20-6, in 2A championship game