On the stadium’s top steps, Raider defensive lineman and captain Joe Finney, all 77 inches and 295 pounds of him, shivers in short sleeves as he discusses another change. A change in South’s football fortunes. Finney has plenty to talk about. Over the past two weeks, the Raiders have been a story as stunning as snow in August.

When the South players and coaches boarded the bus for West Forsyth on Oct. 22, they were bearing the weight of a 1-7 record. The team’s three-year veterans had known victory five times and the misery of losing 25 times in their careers. As the bus left I-40 and turned toward Clemmonsville, the seniors’ sad legacy appeared to be the worst record in school history. Everyone said they were headed for 1-10.

At that point, South stood 0-1 in its five-team conference — after a disheartening second-half collapse the previous week at Davie County. Now, the always-tough Titans were ready to execute a death sentence on South’s fading playoff dreams.

But those who made the trip to West Forsyth claim to have witnessed a small miracle.

South trailed 14-0 in a blink, but wound up winning 35-17. It outscored the Titans 28-0 in the second half, outrushed them 325 yards to 79. It was South’s first win over West in a dozen years.

After seeing the score on TV, several people called the Post, wondering if perhaps there had been a mistake. When Raider coach Rick Vanhoy heard about those calls the next week, he laughed out loud. That was neat. He hasn’t had all that many chances to laugh about football lately.

History repeated, more or less, on Oct. 29. Only this time the foe was R.J. Reynolds and this time South was at home. The Raiders overcame a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to win 31-27.

That put South at 2-1 in the CPC, good enough for second place.

And now a home win over Mount Tabor on Friday puts South in the 4A state playoffs for the first time since 1994.

And that’s why Finney says Friday’s game will be the most important one he has played in his life. Bigger than Kannapolis. Bigger than anything. Bigger than big.

Finney and his fellow seniors don’t want things to end now. Not when the fun has finally started.

“There’s no doubt we can do it,” says Finney. “We’ve got to do it.”

History says it won’t be easy. South hasn’t beaten Mount Tabor since 1989. And South has never swept the three Forsyth County schools — Reynolds, Tabor and West Forsyth — since it started playing them 14 years ago.

“Heck, South didn’t beat those Winston teams even when I was a ballboy,” says another captain, Brian Billings, a 325-pound guard. “My brother (Travis) played on some good teams here, but they couldn’t beat West Forsyth and Tabor. To beat ‘em all in one year, that would be real big.”

“We can leave a name for ourselves as one of the few teams from South to make the 4A playoffs,” said linebacker/fullback Darryl Childers, the team’s other captain.

There have been only three previous ones — ‘85, ‘86 and ‘94.

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None of the trio of captains can explain exactly why what has happened has happened.

They’re just glad that things turned around. Glad for their school, glad for their senior class, glad for their younger teammates, glad mostly for the coaching staff.

“Coach Vanhoy, Coach (Larry) Deal, all of them went out of the way in the offseason to get us in the weight room,” said Finney. “And they never got down on us. No matter how bad it got, they always kept a real positive attitude.”

That couldn’t have been easy. Vanhoy felt all along that this team was talented enough to be good, even in the face of a killer schedule. Finally, his faith is being rewarded.

“It’s about time,” said Billings. “It was time we showed people that we could do something.”

“All year, people at school kept telling me how bad we were,” added Finney. “I kept sayin’, ‘Just wait, just wait.’ Thank goodness, it finally clicked. We were down to our last chance.”

“Practice is fun now,” said Billings. “Everyone’s got a little more hop in their step. Everything’s working like it’s supposed to.”

There’s something about this South team that you have to like.

You have to like a team that outscored West Forsyth and Mount Tabor by a combined 35-0 in the fourth quarter. That says a little bit about wanting to do what no South team has ever done.

And mostly you have to like Childers.

Last year, everyone acknowledged that he was the best player on South’s team, but the title was hollow, because the squad was 2-9.

This year, with a lot more good athletes around, he’s gotten far less attention for his fine play, but he could care less.

“I’ll take the wins over the spotlight,” says Childers. “Until we beat West Forsyth, I’d never beaten a Winston team, not even in a jayvee game. But it feels good. Now, I think it’s time for one last payback. We’ve got to make all those years of hard work pay off.”