By the end of the 1950s, the Braveland Conference had doubled in size, growing from the original four schools started by two rival football coaches in 1953 to a robust eight-member loop scattered around the Milwaukee area. And the growth experienced by Wisconsin’s largest metropolitan area showed no signs of stopping with several new school districts set to open in the first part of the 1960s. It was becoming clear that decisions would have to be made, not only by the Braveland but also by the other conferences in southeastern Wisconsin.
After decades of opposition to realignment and begrudgingly expanding its membership roster in the 1940s, the Suburban Conference began to take notice of the Braveland’s growth and leadership recognized the need for change. The Braveland and Suburban Conferences first met to discuss realignment in 1958, including the Little Ten in their talks. Aside from the Little Ten accepting Watertown’s return to the conference, no resolution came from these meetings, but a plan to realign the two conferences was finally put forth when they met again two years later. The talks were led by Waukesha High School principal R.G. Hein, and the final recommendation was to create three conferences for the twenty-two participating schools.
| North Suburban | South Suburban | West Suburban |
|---|---|---|
| Cedarburg | Cudahy | Brookfield |
| Granville | Greendale | Menomonee Falls |
| Homestead | Greenfield | Nathan Hale |
| Nicolet | Muskego | Waukesha |
| Port Washington | Oak Creek | Wauwatosa East |
| Shorewood | South Milwaukee | Wauwatosa West |
| Whitefish Bay | West Milwaukee | West Allis Central |
| Whitnall |
This plan accommodated several schools that had just opened but weren’t aligned to a conference yet (Greenfield, Homestead, and Whitnall) along with Wauwatosa West, who were set to join the Suburban Conference after their 1961 opening. It also took into account the inevitable northward and westward expansion of the Milwaukee metropolitan area, with Germantown, Grafton, West Bend, and a possible second high school in the Nicolet Union High School District reported as possible invitees.
| Northern Braveland | Southern Braveland |
|---|---|
| Cedarburg | Brookfield Central |
| Granville | Brookfield East (JV only until 1962) |
| Hamilton (JV only until 1963) | Greendale |
| Homestead | Greenfield |
| Menomonee Falls | Muskego |
| Nicolet | New Berlin (JV only until 1962) |
| Port Washington | Oak Creek |
| Whitnall |
For reasons unknown, this plan was never implemented, and both conferences went back to the drawing board. The 1961-62 school year saw six schools added to the Braveland Conference: Brookfield East, Greenfield, Hamilton in Sussex, Homestead in Mequon, New Berlin, and Whitnall in Hales Corners. A seventh school was added when Greendale announced their departure from the Suburban Conference after the 1960-61 school year to make room for the newly opened Wauwatosa West High School. Their landing spot was in the Braveland, which had now tripled in size in less than a decade of existence. To better accommodate travel expenses and scheduling, the conference was partitioned into northern and southern divisions.
Franklin and St. Francis were accepted into the Braveland in early 1962, and with their addition, the conference now more than quadrupled to seventeen members by the 1963-64 school year. Recognizing the difficulties that would come with running a seventeen-member high school athletic conference, officials entered into talks in February 1962 about how to resolve the conference’s staggering growth. Braveland Conference executive secretary Don Rennicke of Granville made the announcement that effective September 1, 1963, the Braveland Conference’s assets would be split into two different organizations along geographic lines:
| Braveland Conference | Parkland Conference |
|---|---|
| Brookfield Central | Franklin |
| Brookfield East | Greendale |
| Cedarburg | Greenfield |
| Granville | Muskego |
| Hamilton | New Berlin |
| Homestead | Oak Creek |
| Menomonee Falls | St. Francis |
| Nicolet | Whitnall |
| Port Washington |
The nine schools located north of Interstate 94 kept the Braveland moniker, while the eight schools south of the freeway chose a new name for their organization before its split: the Parkland Conference, named so because of the abundance of large public parks in the less developed southern half of Milwaukee County. The two conferences would continue to maintain a loose affiliation for some sports, but for all intents and purposes they were now two separate organizations, with separate hierarchies and records kept for both.
Over the years, realignment has claimed both the Braveland Conference in 1993 and the Parkland Conference in 2006. Six decades after the original split, history has repeated itself in southeastern Wisconsin, and as with the previous separation, growth is again the main catalyst. The process started when Waukesha North and Waukesha South joined the Woodland Conference for the 2025-26 school year after leaving their previous home in the Classic 8. This action brought Woodland Conference membership to sixteen schools over two divisions (sound familiar yet?). The Parkland Conference name had already been revived in 2020 as a result of football realignment, although an association was kept with the parent Woodland Conference (its original name was, in fact, the Woodland West). In October 2025, a proposal to split the Woodland Conference into two separate conferences was fast-tracked for approval beginning with the 2026-27 school year. All eight schools in the Woodland Conference’s Western Division separated to form what was initially referred to as the Parkland Conference before officially adopting the Park Ridge Conference name in July 2026. Like the Northern Braveland, the Eastern Division schools of the Woodland Conference kept the name and added two new members (Augustine Prep South in Milwaukee and Nathan Hale in West Allis).
