Serena Kersten: Jersey's Team Jets could miss promotion due to lack of facilities
- Published
Former England captain Serena Kersten has been coaching Jersey's Team Jets for a year
Jersey's Team Jets could miss out on promotion to National Premier League Three due to a lack of suitable courts, said head coach Serena Kersten.
The former England netball captain has guided Jets to the South West Regional League One title this season.
They have promotion play-offs this weekend, but Kersten says that could be thwarted by a lack of facilities.
"If that problem wasn't solved we wouldn't be eligible to be a Prem team," Kersten told BBC Radio Jersey.
"We've already had some of the criteria sent out to us and we're having to review it because we may have to do a bit of negotiating in terms of hosting games and what that looks like.
"There isn't really many options for us in terms of hosting around having the right run-off, having the right surfaces to play on.
"It's a big problem for us, you see football have got their facilities, rugby have got a rugby pitch to provide performance games on, we don't necessarily have a performance court yet.
"We've got one of the best performance teams in the island, the Jersey Netball Association has 1,000 woman and girls every week playing on our courts, yet we don't have a performance court, so it's a huge issue."
Team Jets used to play their games at Les Ormes, but their deal to play there ended in March.
It has led to problems for the island's elite players to find places to train leading up to their biggest event in years.
"This prep week we've only been able to get a court for one hour," added Kersten, who helped England win a historic Commonwealth Games gold medal in Australia in 2018.
"It's easy to say, 'There's loads of courts on the island,' but a court that's a performance court for a performance team, there aren't many.
"I'm quite frustrated that we haven't been able to get in and it's something that I've had conversations with government about and will continue to push until there are enough performance facilities for high-level netball on the island."