Bracket chatter: Some streaks end, some just beginning

Whitefish Bay Dominican is the only team making its first-ever WIAA playoff appearance this season. Mark Stewart of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel penned a piece about the seniors who are leading the Knights on this first-of-its-kind run.

It's also a little misleading, however, since Dominican competed as a WISAA school until the merger with the WIAA in 2000. So it's not technically a first-ever playoff appearance for the school's football team, just the first in WIAA play.

The same can be held true when compiling the longest playoff streaks in the field. Wisconsin Lutheran has never missed the WIAA playoffs, for example, but that streak only goes back to 2000.

With that disclaimer in mind, check out the longest gaps between appearances and the longest streaks of making the field in this year's tournament.

Consecutive appearances

Menomonie - 27
Brodhead/Juda - 25
Stratford - 25
Lancaster - 24
Waupaca - 26
Edgar - 22
Plymouth - 22
Wrightstown - 22
Arrowhead - 21
De Soto - 21
Middleton - 21
Waunakee - 21
Ashwaubenon - 19
Hurley - 19 
Wisconsin Lutheran - 17
Bay Port - 16
Franklin - 16
Homestead - 16
Lodi - 16
Monona Grove - 16

Longest drought ended

Dominican - first ever WIAA appearance
Stoughton - 1998 (2nd overall appearance)
Royall - 2002 (12th overall)
Sparta - 2005 (6th overall)
Amery - 2006 (9th overall)
Port Washington - 2008 (19th overall)
Random Lake - 2009 (15th overall)
Horicon/Hustisford - 2009 (14th overall)*
Ripon - 2010 (12th overall)
Shawano - 2010 (2nd overall)
Wauzeka-Steuben/Seneca - 2010 (4th overall)
Rib Lake/Prentice - 2011 (8th overall)
Tri-County - 2011 (4th overall)
Wisconsin Rapids - 2011 (15th overall)
Fennimore - 2012 (15th overall)
Manawa - 2012 (21st overall)
Martin Luther - 2012 (8th overall)
Monroe - 2012 (18th overall)
Lake Mills - 2012 (6th overall)
Pulaski - 2012 (13th overall)
Suring - 2012 (9th overall)

*Hustisford last appeared in 2009, Horicon (seven appearances) in 2006. First time co-op has made postseason.

Playoff streaks snapped

Pardeeville - 17 years
Catholic Central - 16
Hillsboro - 14
Mosinee - 14
Somerset - 14
Rio - 10
Athens - 7
Eau Claire Memorial - 6
Wautoma - 6
Black River Falls - 4 
Crivitz - 4
Cambridge - 3
Shoreland Lutheran - 3
Slinger - 3
Milton - 3
Weston - 3*

*Now co-opping with Wonewoc (co-op did not make playoffs)

Overall playoff appearances

De Soto - 32
Milwaukee Bradley Tech - 31
Stratford - 31
Edgar - 30
Menomonie - 30
Waupaca - 29
Darlington - 28
Arrowhead - 27
DeForest - 27
Platteville - 27
Plymouth - 27
D.C. Everest - 26
Lancaster - 26
New Berlin Eisenhower - 26
Stanley-Boyd - 26
Sun Prairie - 26
Brodhead/Juda - 25
Bloomer - 25
Peshtigo - 25
Wrightstown - 25

Howards Grove (28) and Florence (27) did not make this year's playoff field