The purpose of which is to hopefully inspire other players to also go and achieve better things and also to make them understand what is possible to achieve through playing the game of tennis.
Clinching the “Conference title”
Nishangan Nadaraja, a former Davis Cup player for Sri Lanka, is now in the US for his higher studies. He has done extremely well to help his university, the Alabama A&M, win the prestigious National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I “South Western Athletic Conference” (SWAC) championship on the 20th of April.
Nishangan’s contribution was significant in his capacity as the Assistant Coach of his university team. This is the first time that Alabama A&M University has won the “conference championship” in their history having lost in the finals earlier.
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Representing Alabama A&M in the US, Nishangan Nadaraja (on right) helped his university win the prestigious NCAA Div. I South Western Athletic Conference championship on 20 April. On left is Alabama A&M Head Coach Willis Mbandi[/caption]
Excelling in academics too
Nishangan first played the Davis Cup, the main annual international men’s team competition in tennis in the world, for Sri Lanka in 2012 as a 15-year-old and was the Junior National Champion (Under-18) in 2014. Having completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing, he is now reading for his Master’s Degree in Systems and Material Engineering in the US. Nishangan completed his Bachelor’s Degree with a mention in the Dean’s list in all four of his undergraduate years and was awarded a bronze medal in his final year (2019) for his academic performance.
Most outstanding “scholar athlete”
He was also chosen as the Most Outstanding Scholar athlete of the University in the same year (2019) which is awarded to only one student in the University for his/her performances academically as well as in their chosen field of sport. Nadaraja was also selected for the “National Society of Leadership and Success” whose membership can only be obtained through invitation.
He is currently supervising the Graduate Assistant for the Tutorial Assistance Network (TAN), apart from his duties for the University tennis team. His TAN responsibilities include managing and promoting TAN social media pages among students, supervising and observing tutorial sessions, and giving feedback to tutors, reaching out to students who is failing and not attending classes, as well as recruitment of TAN employees.
Most Valuable Tennis Player at Alabama A&M
He played for his university for four years and in his final year, playing as a senior undergraduate, Nishangan was instrumental in helping the university reach the final of the SWAC Conference, while playing in the No. 1 singles position. But on that occasion, they lost to the Alabama State University (ASU) by 4-3 in the final.
Nishangan was chosen for “the all-tournament team” that year on the back of his performances. He was also chosen as the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of tennis in the Alabama A&M in 2016 and was chosen for the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll in year 2017.
Nishangan a product of the successful tennis programme at St Peter’s College, Colombo 4 which has produced numerous champions, was then appointed as an assistant coach to the tennis team in 2020. With there being no tournament in 2020 due to the pandemic Alabama A&M gained sweet revenge on the three time champions ASU by beating them by 4/3 to win this historic championship this year.
Acting Head Coach
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Nishangan Nadaraja in action at an ITF Sri Lanka Futures Tennis Tournament in February 2015 in Colombo Photo Kamal Wanniarachchi[/caption]
Coached by the University Head Coach Willis Mbandi, who is himself an alumnus of the university, Nishangan had to step in as acting Head Coach during the middle of the season when Mbandi himself tested positive for Covid-19. Mbandi, who was Nishangan’s Head Coach as well, made a successful recovery to lead the University team at the Conference finals.
“I’m very proud of these young men,” Mbandi told the Morning Sports. “They played with so much heart and ‘bulldog pride’ today and just refused to lose. They deserve to be champions!,” he added.
Coach of the year title for Alabama
Alabama A&M, known as “the Bulldogs”, also collected an impressive list of honours. Mbandi was named as “the SWAC Coach of the Year” and Natiphat Mulada from Thailand earned the Most Valuable Player honours.
Joining the latter as All-Tournament selections were Gjorgji Popovski from Macedonia, Panji Setiawan from Indonesia, and Divesh Gahlot from India. With this victory, Alabama A&M has also punched their ticket to the NCAA Tournament and will find out who their opponent will be on Monday, 3 May.
Inspiration for youngsters
The fact that Nishangan, who originally hails from an ordinary middle-class family from Negombo, has been able to achieve so much through the game of tennis should serve as an inspiration to the younger players playing the game here.
As this writer has enunciated time and time again, tennis is one game where the young players involved in it can use it as a vehicle to achieving higher education scholarships to foreign universities. This is of course apart from what the players can achieve through the game of tennis itself.
This is a story of determination, hard work, dedication, and perseverance. They are, at the end of the day, the only ingredients for a successful life forward.