Changes at the top for White Sox
Softball New Zealand have made changes to the White Sox national women’s team coaching staff and will decide in the New Year if they will enter the Olympic Games qualifying tournament.
The national body conducted a review of the White Sox’s campaign at the 2018 world championships in Japan where New Zealand finished 13th out of 16 teams.
The poor result – the White Sox’s equal-worst in 16 world championships – resulted in High Performance Sport New Zealand (HPSNZ) cutting the team’s seed funding from $150,000 this year to $30,000 for next year.
There is no guarantee yet that the White Sox – now ranked 11th in the world – will contest the Olympic Games qualifying series.
Softball New Zealand is waiting for the World Baseball Softball Confederation to decide at its January 20 executive meeting where the regional qualifiers, including the Asia-Oceania tournaments will be held.
Australia (Sydney) and China (Shanghai) have lodged bids to host the tournament where the winner will join hosts Japan, the United States, two teams from the Americans qualifying group and the winner of the Europe-Africa series at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
SNZ chief executive Tony Giles said the venue announcement could play an important part in New Zealand’s decision, given the White Sox’s campaign would be ‘‘self-funded’’.
As a result of the review, Giles said head coach Kevin Gettins had been retained for the Asia Pacific Cup tournament in Sydney in February, but he will have new assistants.
Tony Simpson has been replaced as assistant coach by New Zealand’s new national under-23 team head coach Stan Doney, a New Zealander who has been part of the Great Britain and Netherlands national women’s team coaching staffs.
Mike Roberts, the White Sox’s pitching coach at the last two world championships, was unavailable for the Asia Pacific Cup. He has been replaced for the Sydney series by ex-Australian pitcher Kelly Hardie, a former Olympic and world championship medallist, who has just been replaced as Australia’s pitching coach after a six-year stint.
Giles said the White Sox appointments would be reviewed after the Asia Pacific Cup when the White Sox’s international future would be clearer.
Doney and Hardie were appointed directly, but Giles said the White Sox jobs would be advertised ‘‘going forward’’.