Brian Cooney still has a bin in his attic with memories of his playing days at Oswego – helmets, jerseys.

At Christmas he typically drags out that stuff with the holiday lights and tinsel. He’ll put his old helmet on.

“See if it still fits me,” Cooney said.

Cooney fits Oswego.

As old-school football as the grass field at Ken Pickerill Stadium, no nonsense but thoughtful, the father of three boys has an appreciation for the coaches who burned the path at Oswego before him.

And his community.

“This is home for me,” Cooney said. “I haven’t been anywhere else and have no plans to.”

Cooney this weekend will have the opportunity to complete quite a trifecta.

He was a senior linebacker on the 1992 team coached by his mentor, Karl Hoinkes, that won the Class 4A state championship, Oswego’s first.

Cooney was on the staff as Oswego’s sophomore coach the last time the program was at state, when it beat Libertyville for the 2003 Class 7A championship.

Now, in his 14th season as head coach, Cooney is leading his alma mater to the Class 8A state championship game Saturday night against Mount Carmel.

“Unbelievable,” Cooney said. “Not many people would have believed. Maybe in June if you would have told me, I would have said it’s always a long shot. So proud of these kids.”

Cooney this week has noted parallels between that 1992 team and this current Oswego group.

That ‘92 team followed a ‘91 group that had gone 12-0 until running into Providence in the Class 4A semifinals.

Last year’s Oswego team went 9-0 during the regular season, but lost Cooney’s son Carson Cooney to an injury in the playoffs and lost to eventual Class 8A runner-up York in the second round.

A year later, with just four starters returning, Oswego is here.

“Everyone thought that 1991 team, with more D-1 kids on it, was supposed to play for the title. It mirrors a little bit this year, because last year we had the big names,” Cooney said. “We thought last year we had the players to make a run, but these kids decided that was good but they’re going to do it this year.”

A playoff run like this one, unexpected to many outside the locker room, would still be meaningful to a coach if he were from Winnetka or Chicago Heights.

It must be extra special to a hometown kid.

Class of 1993 at Oswego, shortly after playing college at Aurora University Cooney asked his old coach Hoinkes if he had a spot on the staff as a volunteer coach.

“Coaching under my former coach was an honor,” Cooney said, “and I haven’t looked back.”

From sophomore assistant to sophomore coach to varsity linebackers coach, Cooney moved up to defensive coordinator in 2007 when Hoinkes retired and Dave Keely got the head job.

Five years later, when Keely retired, Cooney was named head coach.

“I don’t know anywhere else,” Cooney said. “This game has been great to me, this school has been great to me and the people associated with this program have been great to me.”

Cooney has tried not to stray too far from the template set by those before him. Work hard, stay in line, success will follow. He’s proud to be Oswego coach.

He stresses he’s not in this position without Ken Pickerill, a mentor he carries in his heart while his players carry the memory on their helmet.

“I played D3 football, it takes some money to play at Aurora, didn’t grow up with much, so my mom and dad said we did it for one year, I think that’s all we can do, so I was ready to stop playing football and I don’t know what I would have done,” Cooney said. “Coach Pick made a call and shortly after that I was awarded something called the Spartan award that allowed me to stay there. If it wasn’t for that phone call, if it wasn’t for him, I am somewhere else doing something else now.”

Now he’s leading his group of kids – including Cooney’s own middle son, junior linebacker Cade Cooney – to face a Mount Carmel team that might be the best collection of talent that program has ever assembled. Oswego and Mount Carmel last met in the 1999 Class 5A semifinals.

A massive underdog perhaps, but Cooney does not expect his kids to give an inch.

“They have talent, both sides of the ball, everywhere. It will be a challenge,” Cooney said. “Our kids love challenges. It will be fun.”

Every year Cooney has what he calls a sad tradition of watching every single state championship game on TV while he’s putting up the Christmas decorations Thanksgiving weekend.

He remembers every single game he played up until the state championship game, and hopes his kids do, too.

“It will be a fun experience for our kids, playing on a stage like that against a phenomenal team,” Cooney said. “I’m excited for the kids to have the opportunity that I had when I was a senior. Hopefully they’ll remember this for the rest of their lives.”