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The Most Disciplined School in Sports for 2018 – St. Anthony’s College Kandy
St. Anthony’s College Kandy won the inaugural Quadrangle’s Spirit of the Game award ‘Lorenz Pereira Trophy’ which is presented to the Most Disciplined School – the school that best upheld the Spirit of the Game in 2018.
This is a programme initiated by the Quadrangle Magazine (www.quadrangle.lk) to promote fair play and ‘Spirit of the Game’ among all stakeholders of school sports and to eradicate hooliganism, whilst recognising the Most Disciplined School.
By winning this accolade, St. Anthony’s College Kandy and the young and old Antonians have aptly exemplified their commitment to uphold ‘Spirit of the Game’ in their conduct both on and off the field. This includes the conduct of Staff, Parents, Old Boys Associations and affiliated bodies of the College during the period reviewed.
The event, which was held at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute last night (14th September 2018) was well attended by Principals of some of the leading boys schools in Colombo & Kandy along with their Masters in Charge of Sports, Coaching staff, School Rugby Captains and representatives of many leading Old Boys Unions of Schools from Kandy, Colombo and Galle. Also in attendance was Mr. Lorenz Pereira, the donor of the trophy who flew down for the function from Australia. In addition, there were many legendary Sports personalities of yesteryear to grace the occasion, some of them who had played along with Lorenz or were his opponents during his Schools days at Royal College.
The trophy is named after the donor Lorenz Pereira who was an outstanding sportsman of yesteryear. A proud product of Royal College, Colombo he excelled in Cricket, Rugger, Athletics and Tennis during the 1950s. He went onto lead the Combined Schools XI and All Ceylon Rugby XV and was the first Ceylonese to Captain CH & FC at rugger.
https://www.quadrangle.lk/personalities/sporting-royalty-lorenz-pereira/
Lorenz PereiraLorenz Pereira in his keynote address spoke on the values of upholding the Spirit of the Game by players, staff and spectators alike while quoting some of his own experiences and memories from the past. He urged all stakeholders including local Sports administrators, Principals and Old Boys to take note of improving the standards of spectator behaviour in Schools Sports whilst eradicating the hooliganism from schools sports completely.
Quadrangle Magazine launched this initiative as a follow up to a report published on Hooliganism in schools sports back in the June 2016 edition of the magazine.
https://www.quadrangle.lk/local-news/we-take-a-stand-against/
Sujith Silva, the Editor in Chief of the Quadrangle came up with the concept of ‘Spirit of the Game’ in order to promote sportsmanship across school sports while binding not only players and officials to stick to the rules but also coaching staff, parents and spectators too to fall in line with their sporting conduct on and off the field.
As first step, the Quadrangle Magazine monitored and gathered reports on the Schools 1st XV ‘A’ Division Rugby matches; the League Tournament, the Knockout Tournament organized by Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Association and also any traditional Rugby encounters held between 1st March and 31st August 2018. Rugby Referees provided feedback on player, staff and spectator behaviour and conduct based on an IRB Fair Play award report guidelines. For which points were given for both ‘Home’ and ‘Visiting’ teams.
Schools who participated in this year’s ‘A’ Division Rugby League and Knockout tournaments were officially informed about this project in advance and they were given an opportunity to provide a report on initiatives and activities they’ve come up with to uplift the player, coaching staff and spectator discipline also the challenges they faced and how they provided adequate security and facilities when hosting matches. Quadrangle also gathered feedback from their staff who acted as independent monitors when covering these matches on spectator behaviour at each game.
An independent panel of judges was appointed to go through all these findings and reports submitted by schools and to pick the winner. The panel comprised of Mrs. Eesha Spelldewinde, Principal of Ladies College Colombo 7, Mr. Neil Wijeratne, Attorney at Law a Sports enthusiast, historian and a writer who was recently inducted into the Sri Lanka Rugby Hall of Fame, Mr. Dilroy Fernando an IRB Referee, former Rugby Captain of Isipathana College who served in many national Rugby committees as a Referee and an administrator, Mr. Shanaka Amarasinghe another Sports enthusiast, sports commentator, a blogger, a ruggerite who turned out for his University and Law College teams after completing his education at St. Thomas’ College Mt. Lavinia.
The short listed 12 schools were: Royal College Colombo 7, St. Joseph’s College Colombo 10, St. Peter’s College Colombo 4, Isipathana College Colombo 5, Wesley College Colombo 8, Kingswood College Kandy, Trinity College Kandy, S. Thomas’ College Mt. Lavinia, St. Anthony’s College Kandy, Dharmaraja College Kandy, Zahira College Colombo and D.S. Senanayake College Colombo. Based on the points each school received, this list was further narrowed down by the panel of judges to the final round of 6 schools, namely Royal, St. Peter’s, Trinity, S. Thomas’, St. Anthony’s and Dharmaraja. The panel of judges invited the President of the Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Association Mr. Ranjith Chandrasekere and the Manager of Rugby Referees Mr. Anil Jayasinghe to provide further details and their observations on the Schools Rugby season.
After extensive studies and evaluation of reports submitted by each school; the panel announced their winners. Royal College Colombo 7 became the 2nd runner up while St. Peter’s College 4 were adjudged the 1st runner up and St. Anthony’s College Kandy for their exemplary behaviour and conduct during the completed Schools Rugby season won the inaugural Quadrangle’s Spirit of the Game award the ‘Lorenz Pereira Trophy’ and was unanimously adjudged the ‘Most Disciplined School in Sport for 2018’.
Rev. Fr. Henry B. Wijerathne, Principal of St. Anthony’s College received the trophy from Mr. Lorenz Pereira flanked by Sujith Silva and the College 1st XV Rugby Captain. Also in attendance was the Master in Charge of Sports, Secretary of St. Anthony’s College Kandy OBA Colombo Branch and their Old Antonian Rugby Club President to celebrate this historic moment.
In order to further promote sportsmanship to a wider audience, the event organizers intend to add more sports and more schools including a separate trophy in the name of late Tara Bolling for girls’ schools as they move forward.
Photos and videos of the Awards Night to follow
The citation readout for the winning team:
During this year’s Schools Rugby season, things did not start positively for this School. They lost what could’ve been their first major victory over their home town rivals in some years by close margin in the dying stage of the game. Likewise they lost two more crucial games which they could’ve won. They were relegated from Cup Championship to the ‘Plate Championship’ and were forced to fight their way against some tough opponents who were in their peak and they themselves were looking for a promotion to Cup Championship. They also had a new Head Coach taking over the charge.
The team bounced back during the second round of the tournament by notching up two crucial games by close margins and avoided any relegations. Amidst all these near misses and near wins, and with change of Coaching Staff and also by operating on a Shoe String Budget, this School, their students, staff and Old Boys kept their faith. Most importantly they never engaged in unruly conduct. They did not blame match officials or pointed fingers at opponents for their misdeeds. They took defeat sportingly and moved on and celebrated victory modestly which came sparingly. They ensured their visitors were looked after well while hosting matches and they became good sporty visitors when travelling.
They upheld the Spirit of the Game both on and off the field and for this; the inaugural Lorenz Pereira Trophy winner and The Most Disciplined School in Sports for 2018 in St. Anthony’s College Kandy!
