Riverwood International Charter School's football program will open Hoskyn Stadium to the public Thursday, Aug. 13, for a free Community Night at 5:30 p.m., giving families, neighbors and fans a chance to meet the 2026 Raiders before the season begins.

The event, announced by Riverwood Athletics on X, is billed as a season kickoff for the "Raider Football family." No ticket is required, unlike regular-season home games that use GoFan.

Head coach Josh Coffey, who joined Riverwood in January after serving as offensive coordinator at Denmark High School, has spent the offseason building a new identity for the program. In an Appen Media season preview published Aug. 11, Coffey described the culture he's instilling.

"Our base pillar is perseverance, that fight through, that overcome something," Coffey told Appen Media. "That's something that these seniors have really taken and run with, and they've answered every call I've made."

Senior quarterback and defensive end Jake Kaplan is among the returning leaders. In the same preview, Kaplan said the team has developed a toughness he hasn't seen before, crediting early-morning offseason workouts that started in the winter.

Coffey's staff includes eight assistants with deep Riverwood ties. Robert Hicks, the assistant head coach and offensive line coach, has been at the school since 2019 and was a third-round pick of the Buffalo Bills in 1998 after earning first-team All-SEC honors at Mississippi State. Austin Lawhead, the JV head coach, graduated from Riverwood in 1998 and played football under Hall of Fame coach Bill Hoskyn, the former athletic director for whom the stadium is named.

The program also runs a Junior Raider Football program for sixth- through eighth-graders, directed by Patrick Hope, a 2017 Riverwood graduate now in his fifth year at the school.

Thursday's gathering comes one week before the Raiders open the regular season at rival North Springs on Friday, Aug. 21. Riverwood already saw its first live action in a preseason scrimmage against Centennial on Aug. 7.

Hoskyn Stadium is at 5900 Raider Dr. Fulton County Schools' clear-bag policy applies, and there is no reentry once inside.