The U17 Basketball Team of Trinity College was selected to play ‘A division’ in the Sri Lanka Schools Basketball Federation U17 Championships after the qualifiers held on the 1st of March.
The team emerged group runners-up, losing only to Ananda College. The results are as follows;
TCK vs Buckingham International, Colombo 78-11 (win)
TCK vs Ananda College, Colombo 33-65 (loss)
TCK vs Kingswood College, Kandy 44-32 (win)
TCK vs Richmond College, Galle 42-26 (win)
TCK vs Science College, Mt. Lavinia 53-35 (win)
U17 Trinity College Basketball Team
Damsith Aluthgedera (Capt.)
Indura Wijeyratne (Vice Capt.)
Travin Rajakarunanayake
Vivek Hettiarachchi
Praveen Ekanayake
Chanaka Perera
Shevindra Herath
Parinda Ratnayake
Cheleka Samaraweera
Senuja Godaliyadda
Jayageeth Basnayake
Kevin Tennakoon
Coach: Panduka Ranasinghe
Master in charge: Bryan Senaratne
Basketball at Trinity was more or less dormant for many years; the last title was won back in 1993 at the National Schools Championships. In 2012 the team was in the ‘B Division’ and their performance was unnoticeable through the years.
However, a recent U19 game led to many changes in the system. A brilliant performance by the senior cagers resulted in the involvement of an enthusiastic group of old boys in lifting the game in College. A new coach was appointed and facilities were arranged.
The new coach Mr Panduka Ranasinghe is a renowned former National and Mercantile Services Coach who had trained teams of many leading schools to win championships. When the 2019 season began with the U17 qualifiers, there was merely a month’s time for Mr. Ransinghe to coach the boys. The players spent hours of sweat and toil in the court, practising at dawn and again until nightfall after school with the aim of making it to ‘A Division’.
The SLBF U17 Qualifying tournament began on the 1st of March and went on till the 5th at the Ananda College Basketball Court. The old boys gave their maximum support throughout the tournament.
Mr Panduka gave the team all possible opportunities he could provide; the team practised at the Henry Pedris Basketball Court, played a friendly match with St. Joseph’s College and met many Sri Lankan basketball stars such as Timothy Nithushan, Praneeth Udumalagala and Clinton Thevakumar.
The experience gained within those five days will be invaluable for the team who is determined to win the championships in the future. The College is thankful to Mr Ranasinghe, Mr Senaratne and the committed old boys who have extended support to revive Basketball at Trinity once again.
