The 11-year-old kid in Section 14 may have been the only person in the arena - maybe the world - who believed his team could pull off the upset of the century.

We can win this, thought Scott Stone as he and a friend walked into the packed field house in Lake Placid, N.Y., that cold winter day in 1980.

America's Olympic hockey team did just that, beating the powerful Soviet Union in the game that became known as the "Miracle on Ice."

Thirty-one years later, Stone is confident of another upset. Now 43, the Republican is challenging Democratic Mayor Anthony Foxx on Nov. 8.

Only twice in a century - and not for 24 years - has an incumbent Charlotte mayor lost re-election. Stone is running against history, demographics and conventional wisdom. Plus he's been out-raised in campaign donations at least 6-1.

Like most underdogs, he tells people what he'll do when he's elected. Unlike others, he appears to genuinely believe he will be.

Stone is nothing if not confident.

He has attacked Foxx's record on jobs and accused him as well as Democratic National Convention officials of favoring out-of-state unions over local workers.

But he's come under fire himself.

In June he sent a fundraising letter to people whose home values rose with revaluation. Values went up, he said, "so that the county and Anthony Foxx could get more taxes out of you."

The countywide revaluations were mandated by law. The city responded with a revenue-neutral budget.

Even some Republicans question the centerpiece of his platform: a proposal to roll back the general fund budget by $72 million without cutting police and fire. They also question his claim that Foxx has influence on convention jobs.

"I'm not certain all his facts add up," says GOP City Council member Edwin Peacock III. "Several things he's saying just aren't achievable."

Other Republicans had suggested Stone, who has never run for office in North Carolina, start with a campaign race for City Council. He didn't buy it.

"I'm ready to hit the ground running now," he says. "We can't wait."

North, then South

Stone is fueled with ambition, energy and caffeinated intensity. Coffee in the morning. Diet Coke in the afternoon. Red Bulls as needed. He's also a relentless optimist.

"I have never seen him anything but," says Brian Long, a Charlotte developer who has known Stone since high school in upstate New York. "That's Scott's personality. ... I've just honestly never seen him down."

Stone, who lives now in southeast Charlotte, was born in a small town north of Lake Placid. He was the youngest of four children. His father ran the local bank and eventually took his family to Albany. In high school, Stone competed in cross country, swimming and golf. Later he went down the road to Clarkson University in Potsdam.

There the Eagle Scout was elected student body president. He got a degree in civil and environmental engineering in 1990 and left for a series of jobs near Washington.

In 1994, he was living in northern Virginia when Oliver North, the ex-Marine implicated in the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s, ran for the U.S. Senate. Stone ran his Arlington County campaign.

In 1996, Stone himself ran in a special election for the county board and lost.

After the election, he went to work for Law Engineering and, at 28, ran its Baltimore office. In 1999, the company asked him to head its biggest office, in Charlotte.

Seeing 'both sides'

Four years later he joined Arcadis, a global design and engineering firm. He opened new markets and rose to senior vice president and national director for land resources.

"Scott was really an exceptional manager," says Michael Case, a co-worker. "He was a good boss ... He would try new and innovative (approaches)."

Stone helped grow the company. He also helped shrink it. As the economy soured, he found himself forced to lay off half of the 400 employees he supervised.

"I've been in a room and done it many times," he says. "It never gets easier. You never sleep well the night before or the night after."

In yet another cost-cutting, Stone himself was let go in 2009. "I know how it is on both sides," he says.

In 2010, Stone landed a job at Merrick & Company, a Colorado-based engineering firm. He became its national director for infrastructure. That's where he worked until what he calls an "amicable" parting this month.

"Sometimes it's not an ideal fit, and sometimes it's just not the right match," he says.

Seeking leadership posts

In 2006, then-GOP Mayor Pat McCrory appointed Stone to the city's Business Advisory Committee. He became chairman in 2008 and spearheaded the city's Small Business Strategic Plan that promised help to struggling businesses.

"He did an excellent job," says Eric Locher, a real estate broker who also served. "He did a good job ... keeping us on task."

In 2007, Stone founded the nonprofit N.C. Heroes Fund to make grants to veterans in financial straits. Critics say the group has since spent more on fundraising than on helping veterans. Stone, and some nonprofit experts, have said that's not unusual for new charities.

Stone's run for mayor doesn't surprise some friends.

"He's always been a bit of a natural leader, always aspired to some sort of leadership role in high school and college and beyond," Long says.

"If I don't have all this stuff going on, I get bored," Stone says.

Endorsed, not embraced

The council's three Republicans have endorsed Stone. But they haven't exactly embraced him.

Stone's platform calls for rolling back the $72 million by which the budget has grown since 2007. But GOP member Warren Cooksey says $30 million of that has gone to police. Stone's proposal to cut the money without cutting police, he says, may be more an indicator of his desire to shrink government than a practical blueprint for how to do it.

Stone insists his plan is workable, that he won't cut public safety. He would save money by, among other things, selling the government center and leasing it back. If there are better ideas, he's open.

"I plan to be a collaborative mayor," he says, "and will welcome all suggestions."

Even Republicans know that against a well-funded incumbent, in a city that has become more Democratic and rarely turns out incumbents, Stone is a long shot.

But he's an optimist.

"It's got me in trouble sometimes, I'm so optimistic," he says. "I plan to bring that to the mayor's office."