Kotze to stay as SA coach

Johannesburg - Netball South Africa (NSA) announced on Tuesday that Elize Kotze will stay on as coach of the National Netball Team until after the scheduled tour to Jamaica in June.

Kotze was a member of a coaching panel appointed early last year, after the resignation of the previous coach, Carin Strauss.

Kotze was named head coach for the World Championships in Singapore in July.

Kotze was a member of the South African team which won the silver medal at the World Championships in Birmingham in 1995, and said she wanted to continue working with the team so that they could build on what they had already achieved.

"We got to number five in the world at the world championships, and the logical next step is to aim for number four," said Kotze.

"I sincerely believe we have the players, the talent and the potential to achieve this."

"But the top four countries - Australia, New Zealand, England and Jamaica - are professionals, and it is very difficult for an amateur team to compete on equal terms with them."

Kotze said one of the problems facing the team was a lack of continuity. "We had the team for six months ahead of the World Championships, and we knew all the time what was happening with every single member of the squad. But they have to work or go back to their studies, and that continuity is lost."

She said she had told NSA about her concerns, and they had agreed to discuss the situation again when the team returned from Jamaica.