Elize Kotze

In her youth, Elize Kotze excelled in track and field and gymnastics, as well as netball. She captained the Northern Transvaal High Schools in netball. After school, she captained the Gauteng North senior team and in 1994 was voted best defender in the country.^[1]

Kotze, was vice captain of the South Africa team that won the silver medal at 1995 World Netball Championships. Her team mates included Irene van Dyk. During the tournament they defeated both England and New Zealand before losing in the final to Australia.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Between 2004 and 2011, Kotze served as head coach at UP-Tuks Netball. During this time she coached and mentored several notable future South Africa netball internationals, including Erin Burger, Chrisna Bootha, Amanda Mynhardt and Vanes-Mari du Toit. She also mentored Jenny van Dyk, one of her successors as South Africa head coach.^[1][6][7][8]

In November 2000, Kotze coached a South Africa team that played in a Tri-Nations Netball Series against New Zealand and Australia.^[9][10][11]

Between 2011 and 2015, Kotze served as head coach of South Africa.^{[3][6][12][13][14]} At the 2011 World Netball Championships she guided South Africa to fifth place after defeating Malawi in the play-off.^{[3][15][16][17]} Highlights of her time in charge included South Africa defeating Jamaica in a test match for the first time in 28 years^[18] and winning the 2013 African Netball Championship.^[19] At the 2014 Commonwealth Games she guided South Africa to sixth place. In January 2015, she resigned as South Africa head coach, citing personal reasons beyond her control. One of Kotze's son was critically ill at the time and spent time in intensive care.^[13][14]