Former Roman Catholic School, Moratuwa and Moratu Vidyalaya Athlete and cricketer, Moratuwa Sports Club, Kalutara Public Cricket Club cricketer, Coach, District Coach and Umpire Hettiarachchige Sumith Prasanna is the present cricket Head Coach and Master in Charge of Cricket at St. John’s College, Nugegoda.
His first school was Roman Catholic School, Moratuwa and his forte was Athletics. He was the under 9 and under 11 Athletic Champion at the Inter School Annual Athletics Meet and his events were 50, 75 and 100 yards.
Later he joined Moratu Vidyalaya and his Principal was W. Weththasinghe and at Vidyalaya he was the under 12, 14, 16 and 19 champion and later his events were 800, 1500 yards and long jump. His second love was cricket and during the intervals he used to play soft ball cricket with his class mates. This was noticed by a then senior player Lucky Rogers Fernando and he asked Sumith to attend cricket practices and he was selected for the under 15 team and after that he went on to represent his Alma Matter in the under 17 and first eleven teams.
In the mean time he continued Athletics seriously and one day former Vidyalian and Ceylon Athlete Lakshman de Alwis visited the grounds to help the Vidyalian Athletes and noticing the talents of Sumith he arranged an Athletics Scholarship He went on to participate at the, Divisional, Zonal, Western and Public Schools Athletic Meets and finally he was placed third at Public Schools and he was awarded school athletic colours.
He was selected to the cricket team as a right hand opening bat and a wicket keeper He took part in the under 15 and 17 tournaments in the Astra Trophy and later Vidyalians won the Under 19 Sharona Trophy under Lucky Rogers by beating Presidents College, Kotte and Vidyalians were promoted to Division One and he too was a member of the Champion Team. He played in two Big Matches and his final year was under Indrajith Nishantha and he carried away the Best Fielder’s Award. While at school he played for Moratuwa Sports Club under Hemal Mendis in Division Three and playing under Virantha Fernando in the Division Two. He commenced his cricket coaching with his Alma Mater and Vidyalians were Runner Up in the under 17 division two tournament. In the following year they became under 15 division two champions and in the next year they won the under 13 division two championship and all these three teams were promoted to division one.
Then he took up duties as the coach at Royal College, Panadura and as he was serving in the schools staff he was appointed as the Master in Charge too and he coached there for 15 years . Then he was transferred to Halim Muslim Vidyalaya, Colombo and the Principal Mr. Hakeem appointed him as the Master in Charge of Sports and later he was transferred to St. Joseph’s College, Nugegoda.
During his 20 year career as a coach he was able to win 23 championships and three runners up awards in all three divisions and in 2013 Kalutara PCC became runners up in the Sara Trophy . Under his coaching Royal College, Panadura became Division Two Best Team and Division One Best Outstation Team on three occasions. Kalutara PCC became Under 23 Runners Up and two Limited Over Champions with one joint championship and one runner up.
He has produced one test and one day player Chamara de Silva and Youth and National Players Gamika Hewawasam, Manoj Chanaka, Sudesh Umayanga, Manoj Dananjaya, Kasun Samantha, Madawa Nimesh, Thenula Dananjaya, Akila Lakshan and Prashan Kalhara to mention a few.
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