Champion Schools is the brainchild of Ian McMahon, a Life Member of both School Sport WA and School Sport Australia. Ian was the SSWA President from 1985 -1998.

From 1985, the Champion Schools competition has steadily grown from just a few secondary sports played, to the many sports offered today. School Sport WA organises many of these competitions and works closely with the various State Sporting Associations to facilitate others.

In 2016, the concept of offering a shield to the best performing school, across the many sports played, was introduced for the very first time, and the McMAHON SHIELD was born.

Each year, SSWA allocates both participation and performance points across all of the ‘endorsed’ Champion Schools sports, and the winning schools are announced as McMahon Shield WINNERS.

The inaugural McMahon Shield was won by Willetton SHS in 2016. 

In 2018, it was decided to split schools into one of two categories (known as ‘tiers’). Placement into one of the two tiers was based on the total number of students enrolled. Those schools in Tier 2, were schools with less than 1200 students.

John Forrest Secondary College won the inaugural Tier 2 McMahon Shield in 2018