South Point High School Football
Who Laid the Foundation for South Point High’s Winning Football Tradition? The School’s First State Championship Team
By Richard Walker
South Point High School’s football program is recognized as one of the best in the state.
The Red Raiders have won 415 games since the school opened in 1969 in addition to claiming 22 conference titles, winning 54 playoff games, five state titles and recording 19 seasons with 10 or more victories. Each of those figures are Gaston County records by large margins.
But if you ask any longtime South Point fan which team laid the foundation for the school’s future success, there’s an emotional and tangible answer: The 1971 Red Raiders.
Not only did that team win the program’s first state title and first conference title in school history, it produced four eventual Gaston County Sports Hall of Famers and nine eventual Belmont Sports Hall of Famers.
And that doesn’t include the 2013 induction of the entire team into the Belmont Sports Hall of Fame.