Football Queensland has declared its inaugural Q-League Schools competition a resounding success, with the first edition of the competition helping boost accessibility to competitive football for high school students whilst celebrating Queensland’s cultural diversity through a shared love of the world game. 

The Q-League Schools competition unites high school students from diverse backgrounds, offering them the chance to represent their schools in a structured and competitive football league run by Football Queensland. 

“As an extension of FQ’s Q-League competition, the school-based competition brought together high school students of all backgrounds in a celebration of the rich cultural diversity of our state and delivered a high-quality competition that is inclusive and easily accessible no matter their circumstances,” FQ Manager – Inclusion Football Sam Escobar said. 

“The first year of the Q-League Schools competition has highlighted the depth of the talent pool within our schools while also promoting an inclusive and competitive environment for students to participate in, ensuring they can start and remain engaged in their football journey. 

“A significant factor in the competition’s first year of success has been its collaboration with the Multicultural Youth Program, as this partnership combines a social-emotional learning approach with the National Football Curriculum’s skill acquisition phase, providing a well-rounded personal development experience for the students. 

“The inaugural season saw six high schools from the Metro region compete. The Islamic College of Brisbane emerged as champions in both the Junior Girls and Senior Girls divisions, while Mabel Park State High School claimed victory in the Junior Boys and Senior Boys categories. 

“FQ looks forward to bringing back the Q-League Schools competition in 2025, bigger and better than ever, with plans to expand the league to include more schools, creating even more opportunities for students to experience the excitement and showcase their skills.” 

Morgan Roberts, Head of Football at Mabel Park State High School, praised the competition’s impact on his players in helping to provide a tangible purpose for students to engage not only in training but in their education and personal development.  

“For a lot of these students sport can be the only reason they want to come to school, so it provides this ‘carrot’ for students to be more engaged in their education, and better develop critical skills such as respect, responsibility and resilience through football,” he said.  

“Having students from very diverse backgrounds, languages, cultures come together through the game under Q-League Schools has been very special, with the competition itself and all the training genuinely creating some of the best memories and moments for them across their schooling life.  

“The majority of my students don’t get the opportunity to play club sport (due to socio-economic barriers), so school sport programs like Q-League, is the closest thing they have to club sport, and it provides them with incredible opportunities for personal and character development, as well as social and teamwork skills growth.  

“At the start of 2024 we struggled to field a team for the Junior and Senior girls categories, but we worked with FQ to deliver a girls-only school based Multicultural Youth Program and very quickly after that, regular and quality competition became available, giving a purpose to being involved in training, which saw our numbers of girls wanting to play and be involved in school football triple.   

“Seeing the students’ hard work and dedication in training pay off as they come together as a unit to overcome challenges faced in competitive team sports, and the pride it brings them to represent their school in the competition, is especially rewarding.”