As the days creep closer to the start of the 2026 high school football season, what are some of the major storylines for the Milwaukee area heading into the fall?
Here’s a look at four headlines revolving around some of the top teams (and players) in the area, starting with the two programs that won state championships to close the 2025 season.
Can defending champions Arrowhead, Grafton replicate their success from last season?
The area captured two gold balls at Camp Randall Stadium last November with Grafton winning its first state title in over four decades in Division 3 over Reedsburg, while Arrowhead won its seventh state title in Division 1 and the first in 12 seasons in a thriller for the ages against defending champion Bay Port.
What can these two do for an encore in 2026?
Grafton loses some massive pieces to the puzzle with the likes of starting quarterback Nicholas Schiller, leading receiver Tyler Deer, along with defensive studs Tyler Heinle and Max Glab from last season’s championship roster. All four were also among the top 10 leading tacklers on the defensive side of the ball.
There’s a ton of gaps to fill, but the good news for the Black Hawks is their bell cow and centerpiece to the offense returns in running back Jack Nelson. In 2025, Nelson ran for 1,931 yards and scored 27 total touchdowns as a junior and will be called upon to carry another massive workload for the D3 champions. Despite the massive losses – and a change of scenery by moving to the Glacier Trails Conference – the Black Hawks have built a culture of toughness and have tapped into the pedigree that made them one of the state’s best programs in the early 1980s.
Marquee games against Slinger at home on Aug. 28, at West Bend West on Sept. 25 and nearby rival Port Washington at home on Oct. 2 could be season-defining matchups.
Switching gears to the reigning D1 champions, Arrowhead joined an exclusive club last season. There’s only seven programs in WIAA history that have won at least seven state championships. Arrowhead is now a member of that special group, joining Stratford (10), St. Mary Springs (9), Edgar (9), Kimberly (8), Lancaster (7) and Waunakee (7).
Similarly to Grafton, though, the Warhawks suffered some massive defensive losses from last season’s title team. Four of their leading tacklers from 2025 are gone, including all-state linebacker and new Army West Point linebacker Brendan Foley. However, the Warhawks’ roster remains in great shape. Drake University commit Nolan Hanson is back at quarterback, while Jebari Craig and Devin Nettles – two-thirds of last year’s three-man backfield with Jacob Siner – are also back. Add in Logan Crowley, Ben Prescher and Tre Oiler, and the Warhawks also have some experienced pass-catching options back in the fold. It helps having a true special weapon in all-state punter and all-conference defensive back Evan Wozniak for one more year before he departs to North Dakota State to help make a repeat possible.
The schedule is brutal as you’d expect for a Classic 8 Conference powerhouse, including a stretch against Muskego, Mukwonago and at newcomer Franklin in the final three weeks of the regular season. Throw in crossover conference games at Catholic Memorial on Sept. 3 and Brookfield East on Sept. 11, along with nonconference games against Marquette and at Neenah, and this is one of the toughest schedules in the state.
Familiar faces in some new places as programs shift gears into new conferences
The 2026 season will feature some massive conference changes across the area.
Among the star-studded moves are defending Southeast Conference champion Franklin moving into the Classic 8 Conference as Pewaukee departs for the Parkland Conference from the C8 and Waukesha West heads to the North Shore Conference. Wisconsin Lutheran also departs the Woodland Conference to join the Wolverines in a new-look North Shore Conference.
Also of note, Catholic Memorial departs the Parkland Conference and has joined the six-team Greater Metro Conference, while Grafton, Port Washington and West Bend West have departed the Woodland, East Central and North Shore Conferences, respectively, to all join the Glacier Trails Conference.
It’s unfortunate Franklin and Catholic Memorial won’t renew their recent battles that have opened the season for the last three years in the upcoming Classic 8-Greater Metro Conference crossover games, but getting to see a supremely-talented CMH bunch face Arrowhead, Muskego and Sussex Hamilton more than makes up for it. Grafton and Port Washington get to continue their rivalry as conference rivals, while the top of the North Shore Conference gets some fresh faces with Waukesha West and Wisconsin Lutheran to challenge Homestead, Slinger and Whitefish Bay.
After becoming the third No. 8 seed to make the state semifinals since 2012, can Whitefish Bay build off its Cinderella run?
Whitefish Bay had a season to remember in 2025, which feels odd to say for a program that limped into the postseason losing five of its final six games before reeling off three straight wins to make the state semifinals in D3.
The Blue Dukes became the third No. 8 seed in the last 13 years to qualify for the state semifinals (Belleville in 2024, Freedom in 2012) with wins over New Berlin West, Port Washington and Martin Luther before Reedsburg ended Bay’s magical run.
What can Bay do to keep the momentum going? For starters, Chase Wolter returns from a junior season where he threw for 1,811 yards and 19 touchdowns, while LaTeef Love Jr. and Kaden Kelly both return to the Blue Dukes backfield after combining for over 2,000 yards and 18 touchdowns on the ground. State basketball champion and leading receiver Mace Miskel also returns as Bay’s leading receiver with 756 yards and 10 scores as a sophomore.
Defensively, the Blue Dukes lose leading tackler Robert Grano and productive two-way athlete Reggie Hart (600 yards, 5 TDs at WR; 4 interceptions on defense), but second-leading tackler Naz Nash and his 57 total tackles return for a senior season. Miskel and senior George Frieder (3 interceptions in 2025) both return to the defensive backfield.
The schedule for Bay has its hurdles. From Sept. 18 to Oct. 2, the Blue Dukes face Slinger at home, are at defending NSC champion Homestead and then face Waukesha West at home. If Bay can clean up the mistakes that cost it three games to close the regular season against West Bend West, Nicolet and Hartford by a combined 13 points, it’ll go a long way in proving that playoff run wasn’t just a random three-game run.
After recent recruiting wins, will the Badgers continue to fend off top-tier programs for high-level recruits?
Questions started to circulate around the recruiting practices of Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell and his staff in terms of keeping in-state high school football stars from leaving for greener pastures at the next level during Fickell’s tenure in Madison.
Whether you think a message of sorts was received or not, the Badgers have stepped up their efforts in a big way with the 2027 class. Out of the 23 hard commits on the recruiting board for Wisconsin, 10 of those players are homegrown players, including six from the Milwaukee area. Hunter and Reece Mallinger, Sussex Hamilton’s gigantic brother duo on the offensive line, have committed to the Badgers. Catholic Memorial teammates Isaac Miller and Dustin Roach have also committed, while Pewaukee offensive lineman Jack Tabbert rounds out the group of area Badgers.
Will these so-called recruiting strategy changes guarantee Big Ten titles and College Football Playoff success a la Indiana, Ohio State and Michigan? Perhaps not. Money talks, and the Badgers still have some catching up to do with the giants of the sport in the bankroll and performance departments.
But could it help bring Wisconsin back to relevancy as a program to be reckoned with within the sport’s best conference in the years to come, while also building goodwill with some of the state’s best high school programs around this area in particular? Absolutely. There’s usually quite a talent pool of prospects that other universities have tapped into in recent years.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: High school football headlines to watch for the 2026 season
Reporting by Michael Whitlow, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Michael Whitlow, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
