KAUKAUNA — The record-setting Kaukauna Galloping Ghosts softball team enters the 2024 WIAA Division 1 playoffs this week as the team to beat for a state championship.
No. 1 seed Kaukauna’s first post-season game will be the Regional Final Thursday at 4:30 p.m. at home.
The Ghosts face the winner of either No. 8 West De Pere or No. 9 Bay Port, who play Tuesday in the Regional semifinal.
The Ghosts have the longest current winning streak in the nation and are on a 104 game winning streak dating back to May 20, 2021, just a few weeks before winning the first of their current three straight state titles.
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The Ghosts have never lost a state title game, winning the championship in each of their previous state appearances including 2010, 2017, 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Kaukauna is now 8 games behind high school softball’s all-time national win streak record of 112 straight games by Vandebilt Catholic (Houma, La.) between 1980-’83, according to MaxPreps.com.
The total ranks fourth on the all-time list behind Sherwood (Sandy Spring, Md.) with 105 wins in a row from 2012-17 and Barbe (Lake Charles, La.), which won 108 in a row from 1988-91.
The Ghosts will need three wins in the playoffs — Thursday, Tuesday and Thursday — to return to the state tournament.
By Dan Plutchak
Dan Plutchak, born and raised in Kaukauna, is cofounder of Kaukauna Community News.