Sri Lanka Volleyball player, under 19 Sri Lanka Schools Captain, Athlete, and the first ever volleyball player to represent the country whilst at school Jayalath Arachchige Mahela Indeewara brought honour and fame to his Alma Mater Dammissara Vidyalaya, Nattandiya.
When M. P. Ranaweera was the Principal at Dammissara Vidyalaya he introduced volleyball in 1981 and the first Coach and the Prefect of Games was T. M. Peiris. During the span of four decades Dammissara Vidyalaya has produced 62 players who have represented the country in the under 19 and under 17 age groups. Presently their coach is an old boy of the school Keerthi Jayasekera and he is the first ever old boy to represent Sri Lanka in volleyball in 1981 against a visiting team from Russia.
Mahela was admitted to Dammissara Vidyalaya in 2007 His father being a member of the Koswadiya Vijaya Volleyball Club Mahawewa took his son Mahela for practices at the age of 10 years. In the school inter house sports meet in 2009 and 2010 Mahela did 50 and 75 metres and came second in the under 11 age category and from there he won the high jump event at the schools sports meet Divisional, District in the under 13, 15, 17 and 19 age groups and in the Provincial under 19 he came second in high jump and at the John Tarbet Meet he won in 2018 and 2019. At the same time he was placed 5th at the All Island Schools Athletic Meet and won school colours.
Though he did Athletics his forte is Volleyball and he is a High Attacker of the team and in the age groups of 11, 12 and 13 his school came first in Divisional, Zonal, District and Provincial Volleyball Tournaments and in 2014 they were the all island Runners Up in the under 14 and 2015 they won the third place in the under 15 age group.
In the year 2015 and 2017 he played in the under 17 and won the Divisional, Zonal, District and were second in the Provincial tournament and in 2018 they won all these tournaments in the under 18 too and they were the All Island Runners Up.
He was selected for the Youth Tour of Myanmar in 2017 in which 24 countries participated and Sri Lanka ended up in ninth place. In the same year his school clinched the DSI under 19 All Island Trophy and Mahela was adjudged the Most Valuable Player and in 2018 under 19 Junior DSI All Island Tournament they were the Champions and Mahela again carried away the Most Valuable Player Award. In 2019 he represented Sri Lanka under 19 team at the Beach Volleyball Tournament and captaining the team in Japan Sri Lanka came fifth out of 20 teams and in the Asian Rankings he was placed fifth after the first game. Same year he toured Bahrain with the under 20 Junior National Team and out of 15 teams they came ninth.
He was selected to the Sri Lanka Team in 2019 for the Asian Championship in Iran and he was the youngest player of the team and he became the first ever player from his school to represent Sri Lanka and in the rankings he was 47th After that in the under 20 schools tournament his Alma Mater won the Divisional, Zonal, District and Provincial and all island championship and Mahela was adjudged Best Player of the Tournament.
In this context his Coach and Master in Charge and PTI Keerthi Jayasekera the present Coach Channa Jayasekeara former Principals R. K. J. Gunasekera, Sumathipala de Silva, Saman Wijesundara and present Principal Anil Pushpakumara and Deputy Principal Mrs. Nilmini Rodrigo helped Mahela in many ways to come up the ladder.
Mahela represented Nattandiya United Volleyball Club in 2017 and they won the Dialog Presidents Gold Cup and he was adjudged the Best Player and in 2018 in the same tournament he was the Best Player. In 2019 in the Dialog Agamathi Championship they were the Runners Up and Mahela received the Best Attackers Award. Representing Sri Lanka Army in the Munchee Tournament he was the Best Player and presently he is in the Sri Lanka National Team.
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