The State’s leading high school netball talent will be on show this weekend at Nissan Arena, with the home of netball in Queensland set to host the 2020 Origin Energy Vicki Wilson Cup.
Named in honour of Queensland and Australian netball great Vicki Wilson OAM, the Origin Energy Vicki Wilson Cup is the premier netball competition for high schools across Queensland.
Run by Netball Queensland and endorsed by Queensland School Sport, the competition is usually split into two divisions, the Shield (grade 7 to 9) and Cup (grade 10 to 12), with preliminary rounds played across each school sport region to determine the top 20 schools eligible to contest the finals series.
Given the challenges presented by COVID-19 and the priority of maintaining the health and safety of all participants, a decision was made to forego the preliminary rounds in 2020 and contest both the Shield and Cup competitions across a 3-day Championship to crown the respective State champions.
Netball Queensland’s General Manager of Venues, Events, Competitions and Commercial, Ben Mannion, said the revised format would make for an exciting weekend of games.
“The school community is an integral part of our netball family here in Queensland and we know how much this event means to the players, so we had to think outside the box to ensure we gave them every opportunity to represent their schools with pride,” Mannion said.
“The 3-day format will create a genuine tournament like atmosphere at the premier indoor facility in the country, which is just reward for these players given the level of competition we are anticipating at this year’s event.
This year’s event will also see the return of the Boys competition, after an overwhelming response from schools wishing to enter a team after the success of the inaugural Boys Division in 2019.
The 2020 Origin Energy Vicki Wilson Cup runs from Saturday 3 October to Monday 5 October at Nissan Arena.
For more information about the event, visit https://qld.netball.com.au/vicki-wilson-championship
