The undisputed National Schools hockey champion team of Royal College will be on a tour to Canberra, Australia from March 23 to April 1 on an invitation from Australian Hockey ACT via the Sri Lankan High Commission in Canberra. The Royal U-18 team won the gold medal and proved its supremacy in 2016.
The history of this team goes back to 2008 and these lads have been playing next to each other for more than a decade beginning from U-9. A few achievements brought back from history would be, U-9 and U-11 Colombo schools champions, U-13 and U-15 Colombo schools runner-up. In the annual encounters of Royal played against 4 popular schools, this team went on to retain all 4 trophies against Wesley College (Dudley K.G.De silva memorial shield), Kingswood College (Lennie De Silva memorial trophy), Trinity College (J.C.A. Corea memorial trophy) and aginst arch rivals S.Thomas’College (Orville Abeynaike Trophy).
Hockey was introduced to Royal in 1955 with the guidance of Lennie De Silva, a past kingswoodian. The golden era of Royal College hockey commenced in 1991 when a bunch of loyal old boys formed the Royal College Hockey Club to assist in developing hockey at Royal. This new development changed the destiny of Royal hockey and paved way for an astounding performance by the Royal stickers in winning large number of titles over the last two decades.
During the last decade they won the National Schools Games Title four times which speaks volume of their dominance. The present coach of Royal College, Rohan Dissanayake who has been serving since 1991 has been instrumental in the successes of Royal hockey. The Royal College Hockey Club is celebrating its 26th anniversary and striving to maintain the standards of professionalism by organizing events such as the "Blue and Gold Hockey 7s”, a premier schools hockey tournament in Sri Lanka.
Royal hockey teams have participated in many foreign tours in the recent past with the sole intention of giving its players the much needed international exposure and that has paid dividends over the years.
During the tour Royal strikers will play five matches, all in the latest blue astro turfs which one match scheduled to be played under lights. Another noteworthy feature is they will be given a training session by Australia’s Under 21 Coach, Ben Bishop who has also been a member of the coaching staff of the Olympic Gold Medal winning Australian team.
Certis Lanka Group will sponsor for arrires and accessories of touring Royal College hockey team. Here Certis Lanka Group joint MD/CEO Vipul Hettige handing over the sponsorship chique to Royal principal B. A. Abeyratne during a ceremony at the Royal College. Also in the picture are the Master In Charge Athula Senanayake and Royal coach and Certis Lanka Manager Human Resources & Training - Rohan Dissanayake.
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