Wright State Athletics and Dayton Children’s Hospital will honor one young fan at every home Wright State men’s basketball game this season under a new Junior Raider of the Game program announced Oct. 28 by Wright State Athletics. The season-long recognition will also extend to select women’s basketball games during the 2026-27 season at the Nutter Center in Fairborn, giving children in the Dayton area a moment on the court before tip-off.
According to the Wright State Athletics announcement, each selected child, between the ages of 5 and 12, will be introduced by name by the Nutter Center public-address announcer during pregame warmups and featured on the arena videoboard. The child and family will also receive on-court access during warmups and a Dayton Children’s Hospital swag bag to take home, Wright State Athletics said.
Nominations are open now and are free, according to Wright State Athletics. A parent or guardian must submit the nomination and tell the athletics department about the child and why that child deserves the spotlight, and Wright State said the form takes less than two minutes to complete. The child must be attending the Wright State home game on the date of selection.
Wright State Athletics staff, in partnership with Dayton Children’s Hospital, will select one Junior Raider for each home game, according to the announcement. Nominations that are not picked for one game are not discarded: Wright State said all nominations are kept on file and considered for every remaining game throughout the season, so a family that nominates a child early keeps that child in the running all year.
The program is built around the 15 home men’s basketball games on Wright State’s 2026-27 schedule at the Nutter Center, according to Wright State Athletics, with select women’s basketball games included as well. That schedule gives the partnership a full season of game nights on which to recognize young fans, rather than a single promotional night.
For Dayton-area families, the appeal is straightforward: a child who follows the Raiders gets to stand on the same court as the team during warmups, hear their name in the arena and see it on the videoboard in front of the home crowd. Wright State Athletics described the program as college basketball rooted in the Dayton community and built around kids and the families who love the game.
The partnership also pairs two familiar Greene County and Montgomery County names — Wright State, whose Nutter Center sits in Fairborn, and Dayton Children’s Hospital in Dayton — in a program aimed at families rather than ticket sales. No purchase beyond attending the game on the selection date is described in the announcement, and nominations themselves are free.
Families who know a young Raiders fan in the Dayton area can submit a nomination through the form linked in the Wright State Athletics announcement. Selections will be made game by game as the 2026-27 home schedule unfolds at the Nutter Center.