Harshana Godamanna ('13) was hired in August of 2021 to take charge of the men's and women's tennis programs.
In his first season back on the harbor campus, Godamanna led the Beacons back to the LEC Tournament semi-final round. They ended the year with an 8-7 record, and a 5-3 mark in Little East Conference play. On the men's side, his squad cruised to the program's five LEC Tournament crown as they dominated the LEC field. In total three players from the women's side and five from the men's side earn All-LEC honors. Godamanna was also named the LEC Coach of the Year on the men's side after leading the Beacons to an undefeated regular season.
Godamanna returns to UMass Boston, where he served as an assistant men’s and women’s tennis coach while getting his bachelor’s degree. He worked with the two programs from 2011-2013 and helped both teams earn new levels of success.
On the men’s side, Godamanna led the Beacons to their first winning season in over a decade in 2012 (8-7). The following season, men’s tennis won a program-record 14 matches, went undefeated in Little East Conference play for the first time in program history (6-0), won their first-ever LEC Regular Season Title and the program’s first LEC Tournament Championship since 1990.
In his first season working with the women’s team (2011), the Beacon tied their then program-record with three conference wins (3-5) and returned to the LEC Tournament after a two-year drought.
Since graduating from UMass Boston, Godamanna has worked at the Sportsmen’s Tennis and Enrichment Center in Boston.
He started as a Business Analyst/Tennis Professional at Sportsmen’s in November 2013. Over the next 17 months, Godamanna prepared cost benefit analysis for the club’s expansion, conducted practices at weekly training clinics and taught and mentored underprivileged children in the Greater Boston Area.
In April 2015, he became an Assistant Director of Tennis at the club. In his new role, he led weekly adult and junior clinics, worked with the Director of Tennis to assess and revamp the club’s program offerings and coached junior players at tournaments across the country.
He was appointed to the Director of the Tennis Academy in January 2020. Over the past 18 months, he has worked to implement and oversee the Academy program for high performance players, developed an evaluation tool that players receive at the end of each season and has engaged sports science specialists into the club’s programming.
In 2021, Godamanna started working with the Sri Lanka Tennis Association to develop fundraising plans and recruit sponsors for the new Stars By Stars programs. The foundation works to create educational pathways for success for Sri Lanka youth.
Godamanna came to the United States after a terrific playing career.
He is a six-time National Champion in his home country of Sri Lanka and is the top player in the history of the Sri Lanka Davis Cup team. Godamanna owns the Sri Lankan record for most singles wins in Davis Cup play (38-15) and most overall victories (62-24). In 2018, he was awarded the Davis Cup Commitment Award for his long-standing contributions to the Sri Lanka Davis Cup team.
As a professional player, he was ranked in the top 850 in the world on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour in both singles (811) and doubles (846). He teamed up with Bart Govaerts to win the 2007 Pakistan F2 Futures Doubles Championship as part of the International Tennis Federation Circuit.
