The Racine Raiders unveiled a new website today. It’s the first website redesign for the organization since 2012 and the seventh new design since 2000. Fans will notice that the new website has a much cleaner and streamlined look. Some enhancements include greater integration with the MidStates Football League and the affiliated teams, player stats by year and for their career, a streamlined navigation menu, and more graphics. The player pages will also contain more multimedia including pictures, interviews, and videos.
“We really wanted to highlight the players with this redesign,” said Don Wadewitz, the Raiders volunteer who developed the website. “We all want to feel like we mattered and this website hopefully tells players that are part of the Racine Raiders and Gladiators family that they mattered.”
Wadewitz will continue working to develop a greater historical record of the team on the website including past rosters, schedules and scores from previous seasons, and statistics. Some of this information was part of the previous website but wasn’t able to be converted easily to the new website.
“It’ll all be coming back,” states Wadewitz. “That takes a lot of time. It’s important to our community and the team that we display that history for all to see because we have something very special here.”
The Raiders have long been on the front-end of the semi-pro football world when it comes to web and social media. The team was among the first teams at this level to have a website, launching the initial website in 2000. That website was designed and developed by former offensive lineman John Hammes. The original website would be on display until May 2003 when Wadewitz helped the Raiders launch a redesigned website. Wadewitz would do additional redesigns of the website in 2005, 2008, and 2012 before the current one. Former board president Matthew Snyder also did a redesign of the website in 2010.
