The aspiring coach
Shehaan Dias (R) with his favourite student Akalanka Peiris at the South Asian Games
An average swimmer during his school days at St. Joseph’s College, Colombo, Shehaan Dias chose swimming as a career and has become a productive coach. While gradually climbing up the ladder in coaching, the 30-year-old added another feather in his cap of success by becoming Sri Lanka’s first coach to attain the American Swimming Coaches’ Association (ASCA) Level 5, the highest available qualification currently.
As a young boy who took up swimming just to kill time after school until his school van arrived, Shehaan admits that he was not a star athlete unlike his brother Shaan and sister Shenaalie, who both reached the national status. But his coach Ruwan Manawadu made sure to take the best out of a young Shehaan, who represented St. Joseph’s from 1997, before winding up his school career by leading the side in 2009.
Today Shehaan has turned out to be a successful coach, while earning the highest qualification in swimming, surpassing his mentors Ruwan Manawadu, Julian Bolling and Manoj Abeysinghe. This achievement was attained by Shehaan during the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, where many activities over the globe came to a standstill.
“Julian Bolling gave me the first break as a coach in 2010 at the Rainbow Swimming Academy, a licensed certification institute for the ASCA. I completed my ASCA Level 1 and 2 under lecturer and former coach Ruwan Manawadu in 2012 and 2013 respectively. Then in 2017 I completed the Level 3 under coach Manawadu and Sergio Lopez, the coach of Joseph Schooling, the Singaporean who beat Michael Phelps. This gave me a craving to achieve more as a coach,” Shehaan said.
With the intention of broadening his knowledge after many successful stints at different places, Shehaan approached the ASCA certification panel to look into possibilities of completing the Level 4. For this he had the support of the Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Union (SLASU).
“After providing the necessary information to the ASCA, the SLASU helped with my performance nomination where I was eligible for Level 5, the final level. I was able to complete both Level 4 and 5 in June using the pandemic situation to my benefit. At present I’m the only coach with a Level 5 certification,” he asserted with pride.
Even his mentors such as Manoj Abeysinghe, Ruwan Manawadu and Nishantha Kumarapperuma are Level 4 coaches in Sri Lanka. But the youngster admits the fact he has more to learn from these seniors, who have been the pillar of strength to his success.
“Soon after I received the certification Manoj, Julian and coach Manawadu spoke to me personally and conveyed their heartiest wishes. I felt really happy when the very people who helped me reach this level as a swimming coach, took my achievement with great pride. I’m really privileged and honoured to have such great coaches around me. I’m sure they will support me in the future too,” said Shehaan recalling the moment he was taken aback by the seniors’ support.
As a swimmer Shehaan restricted his career to school level. His achievements include six straight All-Island Schools Championships and a few Sri Lanka Schools awards. But his real potential in swimming came soon after leaving school, as a coach. He was desperate to join Manoj Abeysinghe’s Killer Whale Academy, but nothing worked in favour of the aspiring coach. In 2010, Shehaan got his first break at the Rainbow Academy, headed by former swimming great Julian Bolling, who helped the young coach step up the ladder.
His first assignment was Junior Squad Coach and by 2016 he was the manager of Rainbow Academy. During the six years, he served as Intermediate Coach, Senior Coach and also as a Coordinating Coach for all schools that are under Rainbow Academy, namely Visakha Vidyalaya, Musaeus College, Royal College and Dharmapala Vidyalaya.
After eight years with the Rainbow Academy and obtaining Levels 1, 2 and 3, he left them to seek a career of his own. He was appointed Head Coach of St. Peter’s College in 2018 and of Holy Family Convent, Bambalapitiya in 2019.
“When I took over, St. Peter’s was ranked seventh among schools and I managed to help them reach second overall at the All Island Schools Championship in 2019 while producing individual champions in the Under10 and 12 categories and team championships in Under-10, 12 and 16 categories at the Schools Nationals. St. Peter’s became far better by winning more titles at Schools and National level. I always looked at ways to make the sport more enjoyable for the youngsters so that they will love it and success will gradually follow,” he explained.
Shehaan also has two brilliant swimmers under his wing – Akalanka Peiris and Pramesh Cooray — both national athletes. He also had a brief stint with the Sri Lanka Navy swimming squad from 2013 to 2016. His escalation as a good coach was inevitable from the beginning. He serves as a member of the SLASU Technical Committee alongside Manoj Abeysinghe, Nishantha Kumarapperuma, Sineth Akila and Sugath Uyanahewa since 2018, and has served as a member of the Sri Lanka coaching staff for many international meets. His last assignment was as Co-Head Coach to Manoj Abeysinghe at the South Asian Games 2019 held in December in Nepal.
With the latest addition, Shehaan is fired up to learn more and he plans to seek overseas experience in coaching, preferably in the United States of America. His intention is to gain more coaching experience to take Sri Lanka swimming to the next level. Shehaan is keen to help Sri Lanka lift up its standards at regional level and beyond.
“Under my coaching Akalanka Peiris was placed ninth at the Youth Olympic Games in 2018, but we need to look beyond that. I personally don’t believe in clinging on to athletes to gain marketing values, but it’s a fact that we must send a swimmer like Akalanka to USA to maximise his performance, just like Manoj did with Matthew Abeysinghe. Just because I have Level 5 does not mean I have the facility or curriculum in terms of education and sports as this is lacking in Sri Lanka. I don’t have the ability to facilitate such athletes, so it’s my duty to create, train and then let go and let them maximise and optimise their performance overseas. We should look at developing our standards and have necessary facilities to provide required services for elite athletes in Sri Lanka,” Shehaan said of his future intentions.