Basketball Ireland has appointed Thomas Garlepp as head coach of the Ireland senior women’s team.
The 40-year-old Australian has signed a three-year deal and will begin the role with a FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2029 Pre-Qualifying game against Iceland at the National Basketball Arena on November 11. Ireland will then travel to face Azerbaijan on November 14 and Switzerland on November 17.
Garlepp arrives with a strong development record in the Australian system. He recently led Australia to bronze at the FIBA U17 Women’s Basketball World Cup in Czechia and spent five years with the Australian Basketball Federation. During that time, he won FIBA Asia Cup gold at U16 level as head coach in 2023 and 2025, and U18 gold as an assistant coach in 2022.
He also combined his national role with a head coaching position at North Bears in Australia’s NBL1 East this season, helping the Sydney-based side to a championship.
Garlepp replaces James Weldon, who had been in charge since January 2019. Weldon led Ireland to silver at the 2021 FIBA European Championship for Small Countries and oversaw Ireland’s return to FIBA Women’s EuroBasket competition, including two recent wins over Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Garlepp said Ireland’s recent results had shown the progress made by the programme.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
Basketball Ireland CEO John Feehan thanked Weldon and his staff, and said the standard of applications for the role reflected the progress made by the senior women’s team.
“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,” Feehan said.
Deirdre Brennan, chair of Basketball Ireland’s Elite Performance Committee, said Garlepp’s background in player development and high-performance environments made him a strong fit for the next phase.
Garlepp’s first task will be appointing his backroom team before preparations begin for Ireland’s November qualifiers.
