Basketball Ireland has announced that its Elite Performance Committee (EPC) has appointed head coaches for the Ireland U20 women’s and men’s teams ahead of next summer’s European competitions.
The EPC has selected Castleisland man, Paudie Fleming as head coach of the Ireland U-20 men’s team and Karl Kilbride as head coach of the Ireland U-20 women’s team
Paudie Fleming has held numerous roles previously in his coaching career.
He was assistant coach for the Ireland U-15/U-16 Boy’s team from 2015 to 2017. Following on from this, from 2017 to 2018, he served as Basketball Ireland Regional Academy Head Coach for the South Academy.
Many Different Coaching Positions
He was also assistant coach for KCYMS Killorglin in 2016/2017, and has held many different coaching positions at various age groups with St. Mary’s Castleisland over the years.
Abroad, Paudie has served as Director of Basketball at St. Josephs College, Sydney, from 2018 to 2020.
Speaking on his appointment Paudie said that it’s always a great honour to represent your country and he thanked the EPC for this opportunity.
“It’s a very exciting time in Irish basketball following on from the senior men’s recent successes and I can’t wait to get started in this new role.
Building on Existing Talent
“I’m looking forward to working with the players and staff, building on their existing talent, as we look ahead to the European Championships and the summer of 2022,” he concluded.
Paudie Fleming’s women’s team counterpart, Karl Kilbride has an equally impressive list of achievements to show.
Bringing Past Experience
Chairperson of the EPC, Tim Rice, spoke on the appointment of the Ireland U20 coaches:
“Paudie brings past experience as an Irish assistant coach, as a regional academy head coach, and has coached abroad in Australia where he has experience working with the Australia senior men as an advance scout. We look forward to him being a great ambassador for our programme as the U20 men’s head coach.
“Karl has certainly shown he has the ability to get the most out of his teams with his success as the head coach with Killester and his past involvement with our programme, most notably as U-16 head women’s coach and the first assistant to Tommy O’Mahony’s (Cordal) U-18 women’s teams recently.
“He is up to the challenge of preparing our U-20 women for European ‘A’ competition in 2022,” said Mr. Rice.
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