They've all been champions

By Roshan Peiris

Lourdes Jayasekera has the proud record of being the national netball coach for the last two years. Sedate and modest, in a deep maroon blouse and a pair of black jeans, Lourdes spelt out that "netball does not consist of merely running and jumping about as the spectators see us, but requires a well disciplined quality of thought to achieve success."

Lourdes who has been playing netball since she was ten and who later played for her school Good Shepherd Convent, Kotahena was wing attack both for the school and later for Sri Lanka from 1970 to 1979.

Lourdes is a now a dedicated coach. "Those teams I coached have all been champions, be it Maharajas or Hatton National Bank.

I used to play for Maharajas when I worked there as production manager and it was my Managing Director Mr. Rajamahendran who said that I should not only play but also coach the team. So for a while I was both a coach cum player" she said.

Netball, Lourdes said, is both exciting and immensely competitive. It is fun upto a point but it is not an easy sport since one has to measure up the opponents' skill and power and their weaknesses. One has to learn to give a sense of economy to one's action. It all depends on how you work as a team and get the ball to your team-mates without any mishaps on the way.

Lourdes said it required both brain and brawn. "In assessing your opponents you require intelligence, co-ordination and vigilance."

Netball does not consist of jumping and running only. One must bear in mind that a coach can do nothing for the players she has coached, once they are in the field meeting their opponents. So it is left to the coach to train them to work out for themselves and meet with tricky situations during an on-going match.

Lourdes spoke of helping those she coached to build up power and strength. "They have to be trained in weightlifting under a special coach with my being present of course."

Lourdes gives netball a new lustre and dimension, for she spoke of psychology which one never connects with netball.

"One must prepare the players mentally as well, and we have a special doctor Priyangar Soysa, who gives the players lectures once a week and prepares them mentally to play up, play up, and play the game.''

How? Lourdes explained, by bringing up front the inner powers so far submerged in them so that they can give their best without fearing the opposition. "The morale of the players must be high before the game begins and that is what the doctor strives for.

"We lost against Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Malawi and Wales. That must be taken in one's stride and the players must not feel intimidated. But we have won in the Asian Games and become champions playing against Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, India and the Maldives."

Lourdes did not hesitate to name the matches lost showing her indomitable optimism as a coach and her belief in taking both defeat and victory as they come.

"We are grateful to the Sports Minister since he finds sponsorship for the matches as he does in other sports items too.

"My husband, an engineer J.M.A.S. Jayasekera encourages me in my work. I have two sons, the eldest of whom is now a final year medical student. The younger one is a trainee pilot working for his licence with LionAir. So do not their achievements speak for my success as a mother?" Lourdes asked.

Lourdes has a happy disposition and takes her charges seriously looking into their physical, mental and their leisure time as well. As a national coach, she said, she is available to any players anywhere for advice.

"I work with Tri Star Apparels and I will give up my coaching career when I feel I am all used up."

Like Nelson, she believes in the maxim 'go at your zenith.'

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