Thomas Garlepp Appointed Ireland senior women's head coach

Basketball Ireland’s have appointed Thomas Garlepp as head coach of the Irish senior women’s team. The 40-year-old Australian has signed a three-year agreement and his first game in charge will be the FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2029 Pre-Qualifying game against Iceland at the National Basketball Arena on November 11th. It is followed by away games against Azerbaijan and Switzerland, on November 14th and 17th respectively. 

Garlepp – who recently led Australia to a bronze medal at the FIBA U17 Women’s Basketball World Cup in Czechia as head coach – brings a strong reputation in player development during his five years with the Australian Basketball Federation, picking up FIBA Asia Cup gold at the U16 level as head coach in 2023 and 2025, and gold at U18 level as assistant coach in 2022.   

He combined his role at the Australian Basketball Federation with a head coaching position with Sydney-based North Bears in Australia’s NBL One East this season, where he helped the team to a championship.    

Speaking on his appointment, Garlepp said: “I feel very grateful and fortunate for the opportunity to take over as Ireland senior women’s head coach. Recent victories over Bosnia & Herzegovina, as well as the close loss to Latvia in Dublin, highlight the progress that the programme has made in recent qualifying campaigns and I’d like to acknowledge the excellent work done by my predecessor James Weldon. I am very excited about the squad and the potential of the players coming through the international pathway programme. I’m looking forward to working with the players and staff to be the best we can be, while building on the strong foundations already in place.”  

Coach Garlepp enjoyed a 14-year career as a professional, spending 11 seasons in Australia’s NBL with Perth Wildcats, Adelaide 36ers, Gold Coast Blaze and the Sydney Kings. The 6’8” forward also earned international honours at 3x3 level for Australia in 2018, where he scored 10 points as they beat Mongolia to capture the FIBA 3x3 Asia Cup. 

Garlepp replaces James Weldon, who had been in the role since January 2019 and led Ireland to a silver medal at the 2021 FIBA European Championship for Small Countries, as well as the teams return to FIBA Women’s EuroBasket, where they picked up two impressive wins over Bosnia & Herzegovina in their most recent campaign. 

Basketball Ireland CEO John Feehan added: “I’d like to thank James Weldon and his coaching staff for the incredible work they have done during his seven years at the helm of our senior women’s national team. We’ve had medal success at the FIBA European Championship for Small Countries, followed by positive results since our return to FIBA Women’s EuroBasket, notably our two recent wins over Bosnia & Herzegovina.  

I’m delighted to say the strength of the progress made in recent years was reflected through the volume and high standard of applications to our Elite Performance Committee (EPC) for the head coach position. Thomas comes with an excellent coaching CV and I look forward to seeing what he can achieve with the exciting crop of players that we have coming through, as we continue to build on the positive momentum and results of our women’s team.” 

Chair of the Elite Performance Committee (EPC), Deirdre Brennan, said: “We are delighted to appoint Thomas Garlepp as our new senior women’s head coach. Thomas brings an exceptional blend of international coaching success, high-performance leadership, and athlete-centred development experience that aligns strongly with our vision for the future of Irish women's basketball. His record of developing athletes, winning at the highest junior international levels, and building positive high-performance environments made him a standout candidate. We believe he has the expertise, leadership and vision to build on our success to date and elevate our women's programme on the international stage.

“On behalf of the EPC, I’d like to thank James Weldon and his staff for the incredible moments they’ve given Irish basketball during his tenure. The aftermath of securing our maiden FIBA Women’s EuroBasket qualifying win against Bosnia & Herzegovina at the National Basketball Arena - as well as a first away win for the programme against the same opposition earlier this year - will live long in the memory as a groundbreaking moment for this programme.  

“James and his staff left no stone unturned in their dedication to developing the senior women’s team and Irish women’s basketball more widely since he took charge in 2019 and the impact of that work will be seen for many years to come. We’d like to wish him every success both on and off the court in the future.”  

Coach Garlepp’s first task will be appointing his backroom team, before preparations commence in earnest for an opening FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2029 Pre-Qualifier against Iceland at the National Basketball Arena on November 11th.