Former National Netball skipper Somitha de Alwis has been appointed as the new National Netball head coach and she will be targetting coaching the team for next year’s Asian championship said President of the Netball Federation Lakshmi Victoria yesterday.
Somitha de Alwis, a product of Sri Dharmaloka College Kelaniya who works at Hatton National Bank is held esteem in high strength in Netball circles. She made her debut for under 13 team at her school and graduated to National level after joining the HNB in 1995. She had a good record at the National team with her accurate shooting and passes. She had earlier was the vice captain of the National team in 1998-1999 and got the honour of captaining the team in 2003- 2004.
De Alwis who produced so many talented coaches for HNB during her coaching period is expected to do good service for the national team and her Assistant coach P.D Prasadi who was also Somitha’s team mate those days once again will join her to develop Netball.
Somitha dear Alwis is considered as one of the most outstanding coaches in the Netball arena has already guided HNB to win the national title. She had represented Sri Lanka in three world cup 1995 in England,1999 in New Zealand and 2003 in Jamaica and She had the honouyr of leading the team for the 2003 world cup.
Speaking to the Daily News Somitha de Alwis said, “I am very happy to give my service as a head coach for the National team.”
“I functioned for a short period as head coach for the National team earlier at the Nation Cup in 2013 and this time I have a big challenge to build up the team especially after the lockdown period. I have to discuss with the Officials and make a better plan to achieve success,” said Somitha De Alwis.
“I had a good journey with the HNB team where they clinched the National championship 12 years in a row,” she added. A few players of the HNB are already in the National team. Somitha was also the Head coach of the Navy SC in 2017 who won the National crown under her coaching period.
Meanwhile, Netball President Victoria Lakshmi said that they wanted to build up the national team with the assistance from Somitha and Prasadi and very soon they are going to begin the National pool training targeting future foreign tournaments. Somitha is a very capable coach at this stage ahead of the other two applicant coaches at the interview board headed by C. Ratnamudali the veteran Sports Director of the Moratuwa University.
The others who were in the interview panel were Former Senior Netball officials Yaswin Dharmaratne, Yasa Ramachamdra, Olivia Gamage and Dr. Lal Ekanayake from the Sports Medical Institute.
“We also hope to add another two applicants for the development programmes as coaches and want to make a strong team,” added the Netball President.
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