St. Mary’s College, Dehiwala, an education institute with over 100-year history has a proud history of school sports like cricket, volleyball, wrestling, boxing and track and field events. Among these sports boxing and wrestling were prominent. During 60’s and 70’s which considered the golden era of Dehiwala St. Mary’s, bunch of national level wrestlers were produced by this school. Cyril Fernando, Malcom Perera, J.R. Mendis, Merry George, Patrick Konugala and Sunil Peris are few to name.
An old Marian wrestler, Ernest Fernando represented the country in 1964 Tokyo Olympics. During the late 70’s the progressive movement of the school hindered and later withered its prestige status in extra curricular activities.
The present principal of St. Mary’s, Chandana Udayakumara wants to uplift the school’s standard to its past glory and seek support of the old boys. An old Marian J. Ranjith Mendis who is a wrestler with fame in his hey days during 60s - 70s volunteered to develop school wrestling.
Under his guidance, lot of students have stepped into wrestling since his training commenced in 2015. Out of 55 Marian wrestlers 29 have qualified from zonal level to compete in national level. The principal appreciated Mendis’s commitment and said that it is a great victory to achieve many zonal victories during a short period.
Coach Mendis hopes to do his best to restore the past wrestling glory in St. Mary’s and the sport wrestling is not highlighted much in school fraternity and needs awareness programmes to popularize. “We have very talented wrestlers, but they must guide in proper manner. If sports authorities provide facilities, we can produce national level wrestlers through the school fraternity,” Mendis stated.
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