You can look up to these football stars.

Byline: Bob Welch / The Register-Guard

FINN ROCK - Lately, I've found myself so disgruntled by the sports world - NBA players brawling with fans, the Rose Bowl selling out to BCS bucks, the NFL prostituting itself with sleazy TV ads - that I needed a breath of fresh air.

I found it here, at McKenzie High, nestled in snow-dusted mountains and alive with a certain something that's fading fast in our me-first sports world.

On Friday at 5 p.m., McKenzie High - enrollment 90 - will play for the state Class 1A football championship at Autzen Stadium. And the school's happy-to-be-here attitude reminds you of what sports should be all about.

I wish every college football coach whose annual bonus pays him more than the college president's salary could have heard senior running back Dillon Bellmore talking about practicing at Autzen Stadium last week.

"It takes your breath away," says Bellmore, who may be going to diesel mechanics school next fall. "I mean, I've never been on a field that has stands all the away around it instead of on just one side."

I wish every NFL player who plays in a climate-controlled dome could have seen the Eagles practicing in the snow Monday afternoon. "Most of our guys also play basketball and knew they could have been in a nice, warm gym," says Rick Gardner, football coach, baseball coach, athletic director and science teacher. "But they said they wouldn't trade the chance to be practicing for state."

I wish the NBA's Latrell Sprewell, who makes $14.6 million a year and recently complained, during a contract dispute, about having a "family to feed," could talk "perks" with Gardner, who makes $2,600 a year as coach and, like other staff members in the district, has taken pay cuts the past two years to help keep the district afloat.

"I get the same perks the volunteer assistants do," he says. "A cap, a whistle and a pair of shorts."

I wish every college athletic director who thinks it's all about skyboxes and million-dollar locker rooms could hear Gardner talk about the Eagles' six-row bleachers - "we're one of the few 1A schools that has covered stands" - and see the team's locker room. It's about the size of a kitchen, but doesn't smell quite as good, and features a portable stereo loaned to the team by one of the players.

"We're pretty fortunate here," says Gardner, who spruced up the locker room with paint he bought himself. "When we go on the road, we use some locker rooms that aren't nearly this nice."

I wish the same NFL marketing exec who thought it'd be a cool commercial to use a locker room liaison between a player and a nude actress could see the hand-painted signs at McKenzie High - "Eagles soar at Autzen!" - and hear Gardner talk about worrying about his wife, Mandy, driving to night road games. "I never relax on the sidelines until I see her in the stands."

I wish that steroid-fueled Goliath, Barry Bonds, could listen to a David - Steve Harbick, the Eagles' defensive coordinator and McKenzie Bridge General Store owner - talk about how a team with only 15 players still has a shot at a Perrydale team that has 35. Maybe he'd remember the pride of accomplishing something - on your own.

"We tell our players: `They put out eight guys and we put out eight guys - and whoever wants it more, wins.' '

I wish all of these people - and college team "boosters" who, in letters to the editor, call for coaches' heads on a plate and youth sports parents who embarrass their children with childish tirades against officials - could see this tiny school along the McKenzie River.

I wish they could hear the wisdom in folks who'll never make SportsCenter.

"You just can't take the good things you've been given for granted," Gardner says.

I wish they could remember the way games are supposed to be played.

Bob Welch can be reached at 338-2354 or at [e-mail].