for decades, WRJN was the radio voice of Racine's Raiders football. And now we've
rekindled that relationship for the 2025 season. The Racine Raiders football team is back
and seeking another championship. And WRJN has the entire season on the schedule Saturday
tonight, starting May 3rd. It's the return of Racine Raiders football. See the full schedule
at WRJN dot com. Okay, that's it. The nutshell. The Racine Raiders are back. When I first
started here in 1991, that was Gary Sauer was, you know, the voice of the Racine Raiders.
And he was fully consumed with it. And I had never heard of semi-pro football before. Then
I got involved in it. And who knew I'd be hearing it from my house, because Horlick
Field, I can hear all the cheering and everything. And Saturday night for my house. And Jeff
Schick is here. He is the general manager of the Racine Raiders football team. And they're
coming back to WRJN. Their schedule begins May 3rd here at home, right? You got a home
game, right? Horlick Field. That's correct. So Saturday night home game at Horlick Field.
Okay. Can you give us a little background on the Racine Raiders for people not familiar
with them? Because when I first came here in 1991, I don't know anything about him.
And Gary Sauer gave me like an instant course on the Racine Raiders. And I mean, this
guy was fully consumed with this. So give us a little history, a little background,
Jeff, if you can. Yeah, absolutely happy to. So Racine Raiders as an organization, this
is our 72nd year of operations. What was begun back in the 1950s. We're an all volunteer,
not for profit organization. So me, every officer on our board, every volunteer that
works, the concession stand, the ticket takers, our kids area, they're all volunteers that
donate their time to the organization. We compete, as you said at the semi pro level
or what's being coined now is professional advancement football, the lower level. In
terms of trying to bottom end of the low level pro level football, where our players who
have careers as teachers, policemen, engineers, insurance agents still have that desire to
play the game of football. And so dedicate their time to practice and perform on Saturday
nights for fans. We are excited about this year coming in with a 27 game winning streak
over the last two years back to back national championships and looking to get rolling again.
As you said this Saturday night, are you one of the teams at the the opponents fear that
oh, no, we got the Raiders coming up this Saturday? Oh, no, I'm not coming in. Is
it something like that? You know, I mean, it's it's split. So there are a lot of teams
that one love the challenge, a lot of guys that love the challenge. And we are recognized
nationally because of our fans as a destination game that teams want to come to. They want to
come up and play at our venue, want to play in front of a thousand, fifteen hundred
hands on a summer night in, you know, in June or July and want to experience this environment.
So we have teams coming in this year from Arizona, North Carolina, Alabama, Michigan, Indiana.
Teams want to come here, but there are a lot of teams as well that want nothing to do with
us. So sometimes it becomes hard to fill a schedule.
Now besides general manager, you're the offensive coach, right? You were coaching the team
as well. I double up. I actually just three years ago started coaching again with the Raiders.
And for the last, this will be my third year as the offensive coordinator for the team.
So my way for love today, I'm just going to have no time for the summer months because
of these two roles. Now again, these are not these are, it's a semi pro league. So these
guys have other jobs in addition to the Raiders. It's not like you're in the NFL where it's
their full-time job. Do you have problems with them? Do they, because you get a problem
with them listening to you or they, or they that into it where coach says it, we're going
to do it.
No, it's, I mean, I think it's one of the great things is most of our guys, and I would
say almost all of them really love the structure that the team brings. They want to be coached,
whether they played at division one football on scholarship and went to school for free or
whether they finished at high school and never played after that. They still have their
play. They want to be coached. They want to be told how they can become better because
they want to perform at an elite level and Saturday nights. And so responsiveness and attentiveness
has not been a problem for us. We have great guys, many of which coach each other as well
because some of these guys know way more football than even a lot of the coaches because they're
so experienced. And so not only do we get instruction from the coaches, but players helping
players is really one of the reasons that we're able to compete at an elite level because
everyone is receptive to get better. That's their goal because they want to continue to be
at that upper echelon at our at our level.
In high school, I remember Mr. Swini was our football coach and he said to me, do you
remember that because I'm said in high school, I'm like 6465. And he said, do you ever think
of going out for football? My mother said no because she didn't want me getting hurt. That's
the truth. She said, Donald, you're not going, I don't want you getting hurt. Well, you
know, I can get her across and say, I don't want you getting hurt so she wouldn't want
me to play sports in high school. I play basketball on some other leagues, but she didn't want
me getting her playing football. Now, did you play football in high school?
I did. I played here in her scene at Racine Park High School for coach Phil Dobs.
Oh, look at you. Local Yoko. All right. That's pretty good. And you know, we do high school
sports now. High school sports are back on WRJN as well. And it's so good to hear those
games. He said, these are the people we see in our community. And here's something about
the Racine Raiders I really like. They're out there all the time. Even the 4th of July parade,
the Racine Raiders are out there every year. The entire team marching in the parade. I take
a car in the parade, but you guys are actually walking in the parade. And that's great that you're
just a part of Racine. Yeah, that's a big piece of who we are. Again, is trying to be present,
trying to always be a partner within the community. So the parades, whether it's the holiday parade
in December, the St. Patrick's Day parade, you know, a few weeks ago, that was downtown.
The 4th of July parade are all big events for us. We encourage our players and our volunteers
to join us to celebrate with all of the parade spectators. And then look for partnerships
in the community as well as we're trying to reinstate partnerships with the schools and get more
involved. My opportunities for our players have outreach with the youth in the community,
things like that that kind of tapered off during the COVID years. We're trying to reinvigorate,
but you know, being an active member of the community is extremely important to us as an organization.
Now, where's the schedule for the games on your website? Where's that?
Absolutely, Racine Raiders.com is our website. You can find all of our information,
team history, our current schedule, statistics from last year, our current roster should be up soon.
We just posted that with the league. So, you know, all of that information can be found there.
It's also a venue where you can order tickets for Saturday. If you will, don't want to wait in line
and want to order your tickets online in advance. So, we're trying to make that website multifunctional.
Now, you also need volunteers. So, people can volunteer to work with the Raiders, right?
Always. As I said, we, you know, have a big concessions operations that not only for
Racine Raider games, but for every event that happens at Hoylec Field through the year,
whether it's City League Softball or high school sports. We were on the concessions there.
It's our contract with the city and part of our partnership with the city of Racine,
as well as, you know, game day operations. We have a marketing committee that works with businesses
in the community that want to advertise with us. So, if you have time, interest, and ideas, we would
love to tap into that energy and try and find a way to make you part of your organization.
You know what, you want to volunteer, Don?
Not at the concessions, then. I'll eat all the food. You'll make no money.
It'll be one hot dog for you, one for me, one drink for you, one for me.
I'd say, I'm just a few blocks from Hoylec Field when I live. I could hear the game on Saturday
nights. I could hear the cheering and everything to the PA system. I could hear it all from my house.
Give us a quick overview of what we're going to hear this Saturday night. It's the opening
game Saturday night at what time's the game start?
Seven p.m. kickoff tonight. This week's game is Educator Appreciation Night. So,
all teachers, public, private, routine county, other outlining areas, any teacher that comes
to the gate with a school ID showing their teacher is admitted free. We will be honoring our
four college scholarship winners at half time in recognizing and introducing them.
DW Davies is a great partner that underwrites this event in terms of a major sponsorship,
and they promote our interaction with the educators in the community. We have a team coming up
from Southwest Tennessee. It's really kind of an all-star team of players that play in a
different league called the EAFL that competes early spring in Florida, Georgia, Alabama,
Tennessee. So, it's 50 players on that roster making the trip up to compete against us on Saturday
night. We played them last year. They had some travel problems and only half their roster made it
here. We did kind of an uncompetitive game, but we're expecting a much better game this Saturday night.
That team has promised that they will not have buses break down in Louisville.
How was that going to happen? The bus broke down?
Yeah, they lost half their roster. Got stuck in Louisville when a bus broke.
That's a matter of they can't take a train from Louisville.
Yeah, hop on Amtrak and get it here. Okay, so the game is May 3rd. You're playing the Tennessee team,
and it's every Saturday night through is it October or September?
Actually, our league championship game is right now on the books for the first weekend of August.
If we're fortunate enough to make there, we do have plans in the works for both a regional
championship series as well as pledging national championships that would happen in August and
September, but we should be wrapped up before October 1st. Okay, and every Friday night now,
every Friday morning, you should say every Friday morning at 8.35. Much like we do with Mike
Clemens, we talked to Mike at 8.50 every Friday morning. We're getting a recene preview of the
Raiders on at 8.35 every Friday morning now. You say the coach is going to be here sometimes, right?
Head coach Wilbert Kennedy is available and extremely excited about joining you and talking to the
fans on Friday morning. So we are going to set that up. You'll be able to hear from the legend
himself, you know, in the American Football Association Hall of Fame. We're seeing Raider Hall of
Fame. It's been a coach for years with multiple national championships under his belt. He is,
the recene Raiders right now. He is a legend in our community. Okay, and your broadcast voice is
Don Waterwitz. You know, little history of Don Waterwitz in this radio station. You want to hear it?
I know it. I know it's WRJN that got him started. He started here as an intern when he was in high
school. And what we did was he was out. We had this machine called radio lotto. And we gave way
lots of prizes, including $10,000 cash. If you matched all six numbers, it was like a pick six type
game. And it was a big unit. And we had we bought him a security outfit because he's a big guy.
We bought him a security outfit. He got the hat and everything. And he had a stand with a
stoic look on his face right next to the machine whenever we brought it somewhere like, you know,
if you cheat, you got to deal with Don. And so that's what he did. We had his security outfit. And
up until I guess several several years ago, it was still here. Somebody got rid of it though.
I should have given it to Don. See if it's still fit. But yeah, he started here as an intern at
WRJN. And now he's the voice of the Raiders and he's great on the radio. Yeah. Excellent.
Don is fantastic. All right. We're looking forward to it. May 3rd. It's the kickoff on WRJN
of the season for the Raiders. Again, the team was at Eastern Tennessee, you said.
Western Tennessee Tennessee. Tennessee Horn is coming up from
Tennessee kind of cultured at Birmingham Alabama, but yes, from Tennessee.
Tennessee Hornets. All right. Looking forward to the game. If I'm out there, I'll just sit on my
porch and hear the game because I get heard from my house. Hey, Jeff Schick, who's the general
manager and offensive coordinator for the Racine Raiders. I want to thank you. I'm looking forward.
And I'm excited. You're back on WRJN. I don't know why the previous owner got rid of you,
but we're glad to have you back here. Civic media said, get the Raiders back in high school football.
And here we are. All right, Jeff. I'll talk to you soon. And the coach is going to be here on
Friday morning at 8.35 to give us a preview of the game every week. Look it forward to it.
I'm glad you're back, man. Thank you. We're thrilled as well. Appreciate the time this morning.