Swimming and Water Polo at Wesley
Wesley Swimming started way back in 1965 was initiated by late Mr. VijithKuruppu and Edward VandenDrisen. The boys used the Otters Aquatic Club from 3pm 4pm, VijithKuruppu& Edward taught the children and the Master in charge during that Era was Mr. Pakiyanathan Mr. Haig Karunarathne and Mr. Suppaiah. In 1966 Edward established a new Novices record 200mts Free Style Boys under 14 and Secured Three Gold medals 200mts, free style 50mts, Butterfly stroke and 50mts Back Stroke, from there onwards Edward won Gold medals at Sri Lanka Schools and open Nationals. He held the 100 & 200 mts Butterfly record at Sri Lanka Schools for a period of 10 years which was ultimately broken by Julian Bolling from 1968 & 1970 he represented the Ceylon Swimming team to India Singapore and Sri Lanka winning 2 Silver medals in the 4 X 100 medley relay (Team member) & 4 individual Bronze medals in the 100 & 200 mts Butterfly. During his career at Wesley he was adjudged the faster swimmer in 1969 two mile Sea swim (4th place) and six mile sea swim (3rd place) from Colombo he was also the Ceylon Life Saving Association Champion life saver he represented a leading swimming club. Kinross Swimming &life saving club (Champions in life saving & water polo at National Level). He was a qualified swimming instructor / Coach &life saving Bronze medalist at the age of 14 years. Presently after retirement from Cinamon Grand Colombo in the capacity of Senior Recreation Manager, he is presently Wesley College Head Coach in swimming since 2012 upto date.
Also Wesley College produced another National Swimmer Jan Hommerson who was a Breast stroke who represented Sri Lanka in 1972.
Wesley opened there own pool in 2012 March 2nd the Principal Dr. Shanti McLelland invited Edward VandenDrisen to be the Chief Guest at present the swimming and Water polo structure is as to follow. He ensure that every child gets the opportunity to swim and learn basis from time table is as follow.
Monday & Friday 5.30am – 7.00am squad training conducted by the Squad Coach Pradeep Vitanage and Head Coach Edward VandenDrisen.
Class Swimming
40 mins duration of a class
| Monday | 8.20am – 11.20am | Grade 1 -5 (4 class – Primary section Edward coaching & teaching) |
| Monday | 2.00pm – 3.00pm | Grade 3, 4 & 5 (Havelocks Children) Asoka Serasinghe& Bernard Silva (Coaching / Teaching) |
| Tuesday | 8.20am – 11.20am | 4 class Grade 6 & 7 Coaching & teaching Asoka Serasinghe |
| Tuesday | 2.00pm – 3.00pm | Grade 1 & 2 Havelocks Bernard Silva & Asoka Serasinghe |
| Wednesday | 8.20am – 11.20am | 4 class Grade 6 & 7 Asoka Serasinghe |
| Wednesday | 1.30pm – 2.30pm | Grade 10, 11, 12 & 13 Asoka Serasinghe |
| Thursday | 8.20am – 11.20am | Grade 6 & 7 Edward VandenDrisen |
| Friday | 8.20am – 11.20am | Grade 1 & 5 Edward VandenDrisen |
| Friday | 1.30pm – 2.30pm | Grade 8 & 9 Asoka Serasinghe |
Water Polo Schedule
| Wednesday | 6.00am – 7.30am | Skill training & Ball Control |
| Thursday | 6.00am – 7.00am | Gym & Water Exercises |
| Friday | 6.00am – 7.30am | Skill training, Ball control & practice matches |
Coaching is done by IsuruErandaPerera (Former old Wesleyite who Captain the national side at SSC, Otters and represented the Sri Lanka Team.
He presently started coaching the College Team since 2019 in 2022 we will be playing tournament matches at School level. His expert knowledge of the game will definitely improve the skills of the game for Wesley.
Water Polo
Sathnidu Athadua is very talented water polo player practices with a leading club (SSC)
Our main motive at Wesley College is to make sure every student leaving Wesley is able to swim to save his life and the good swimmers to be proud to save others lives too, in 2022 we will be conducting a lifesaving program to make sure the qualified swimmers learn the correct technics to save a drowning person. The swimmer kids are very talented and we can assure that Wesley will have Champion swimmers in the future to come.