Schools’ Hockey Champs Royal to tour Australia
Seated from left: Rohan Dissanayake (Coach), M.A.M. Riaz (Senior Games Master), Pasindu Charuka (Captain), B.A. Abeyratne (Principal), Manjitha De Silva (Vice Captain), Athula Senanayake (Master-in-Charge), Sajad Irshad (Secretary) Middle row from left: Abdullah Saabir, Ravindu Ranasinghe, Nadun Wijayawardena, Vidura De Alwis, Himesh Koralage, Navod Gunarathne, Sachithra Malshan Top row from left: Uvindu Sharika, Santhush Silva, Dilan Kavinda, Himesha Hettige, Dinuka Edirisinghe, Uchitha Wasudeva
It’s sure going to be momentous occasion when National Schools’ Hockey Champions Royal College take wing Down Under from March 23 to April 1, on an invitation from the Australian Hockey ACT, via the Sri Lanka High Commission in Canberra.
This team had its beginnings in 2008 playing together from level of under nine. They were under nine and under eleven Colombo Schools Champions. Then they became the under 13 and under 15 Colombo Schools Runners up. In their annual ‘Trophy’ encounters played against four popular schools, this team went on to retain all four trophies against viz, Wesley College (Dudley K.G. De Silva Memorial Shield), Kingswood College (Lennie De Silva Memorial Trophy), Trinity College (J.C.A. Corea Memorial Trophy) and arch rivals S. Thomas’ College (Orville Abeynaike Trophy) are some artifacts that Royal have in their larder.
Hockey was introduced to Royal in 1955 under the guidance of Lennie De Silva, a past Kingswoodian. After going through many obstacles and having won and lost many a tournament, the golden era of Royal College Hockey commenced in 1991, when a group of loyal old boys of the school, formed the Royal College Hockey Club, to assist in developing Hockey at Royal. This new development changed the destiny of Royal College Hockey and paved the way for outstanding performances by its stickers. They regularly won a large number of titles over the last two decades. In the last decade, they won the National Schools Games Title four times, which speaks volume of their dominance. Present Coach Rohan Dissanayake, has been in charge since 1991, and instrumental in their continued success.
The Royal College Hockey Club which is celebrating its 26th year, has strove to maintain professional standards by organising events such as the ‘Blue & Gold Hockey 7s’, deemed a premier Hockey tournament in Sri Lanka.
The man behind the success of Royal College hockey on the field coach Rohan Dissanayake speaking to the Sunday Times said “the development of Royal hockey was mainly due to the encouragement of the school authorities, past pupils and the parents. Royal always adopted a fast, run and pass game that exhibits team work”. He went on further to say “Reid Avenue school have won all the national school tournaments from Under 11 to Under 19 in the recent years. The dedication, commitment and the application of the boys is the main secret behind their success”.
He also thanked S. Skandakumar, a former Royal cricketer and hockey player and the present Sri Lankan High Commissioner in Australia for his assistance in making this tour a reality concluded Dissanayake who guides the youngster for over two decades.
Royal College Hockey teams have undertaken many foreign tours in the recent past, with the sole intention of giving its players the much needed international exposure, which has paid rich dividends.
On tour, they will play five matches, with one match under lights. Another noteworthy feature is a training programme by Australia’s U-21 Coach Ben Bishop, who was also a member of the coaching staff of the Olympic Gold Medal-winning Australian team.