Hasitha Mendis: Shooting goals with a smile
A goal shooter with 35 caps for the national team since making her debut in 2011. The bubbly netballer has built up considerable experience in international competitions and is looking forward to thrilling fans with their exciting style of play in Liverpool.
Hasitha pictured in the centre
Hasitha, or Hassi to her teammates, has an interesting background and career pathway into the National Netball team. Whilst she played netball at school, after her schooling in 2007 she joined the Navy to pursue a career with the Defence Services. From here she got selected into the Navy team – an uncommon and quite fantastic feat. In 2011 she made her first National Team when she was selected for the Six Nations Tournament – at this moment she was “incredibly happy – netball wasn’t originally my life plan and yet I’d made the national team!”
Another key achievement was in store when in 2015 Hassi was selected for the team that competed at the World Cup in Sydney. She plays Goal Shooter and at the international level at 176 cm is shorter than many other goalers however Hassi’s bright personality enabled her to be “determined to use this as motivation to succeed and gain recognition as a ‘shorter shooter.’” Building on this experience and the lessons learnt Hassi also featured in the 2016 and 2018 Sri Lankan teams for the Asian Championships. The 2016 team came runners up and the 2018 team won the tournament. “Team balance and unity” is something that Hassi says enables elite athletes to form successful teams. She notes that the 2018 team in particular, “from the coach, to the captain, to the entire playing group were all extremely supportive of each other giving us strength and belief that we could succeed.”
The team that is headed to the World Cup is similar “we all support each other – everybody is part of one team with one goal. That is our focus.” To be specific, the team is aiming to break into the top 10 netball teams worldwide – this would involve a jump from their current world ranking of 19th. If the team play to their potential they will be able to do this: A fantastic achievement for Sri Lankan netball. Hassi says “we are working well together, our aim and target is clear, we expect to deliver excellence on the court and to do Sri Lanka proud.”
Hassi takes great pride in representing Sri Lanka and she is particularly keen to be able to play well in front of crowds and ‘pay-back’ the support from the Sri Lankans who have come to support their matches. Her mental rehearsal for the games focuses only on positives and the best matches she has played – she likes to take a “good feeling” onto the court. This positive mindset coupled with her cheerful attitude to life has helped her throughout her career when she has been in the National Team, however she has also been dropped from the National Team for some periods.
Her message of encouragement to anyone facing tough times is “don’t let obstacles overcome you – go over them and keep going! Get better!”
Speaking on the team’s recent tour matches against Botswana in preparation for the World Cup, Hassi says the “the closely fought matches, the opportunity to try different player combinations, and the pressure and crowd support were all very beneficial to us.” She talks about the team’s ability to handle and absorb pressure as one of their key strengths “under high pressure our whole team pulls together and we work as one.”
Hassi’s different route into elite netball provides another avenue for inspiration to budding netballers. In determining her success she is grateful to the support from the Navy including Nandani Wijedoru, all of her coaches across her career, and her family.