TORONTO, Ont. (April 4, 2022) – Canada Basketball announced Tuesday that Senior Women’s National Team assistant coach, Carly Clarke, has been named head coach for Canada for this summer’s FIBA U19 Women's Basketball World Cup 2023.

“I’m thrilled to be back working with an age group team at a World Cup and honoured to be asked to lead this strong group of athletes once again," said Clarke. "We have established ourselves as a medal contender at these events consistently and we’re looking forward to putting ourselves in a position to compete for a medal again.”

Clarke has enjoyed success coaching Canada at the age-group level as not only did she lead her cadette team to a bronze medal at the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship in Amsterdam but also had a historic showing at the FIBA U19 Women's Basketball World Cup 2017, defeating Japan in the bronze medal game to capture Canada's first medal at the tournament.  At the inaugural GLOBL JAM last summer, Clarke, who also is head coach of the women’s basketball program at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) led Canada’s U23 women’s national team to a first place finish.  Last week it was announced that Clarke had also been selected to coach the World Select Team for the inaugural women’s game at the 2023 Nike Hoop Summit.

Marlo Davis returns as an assistant coach after coaching Canada at the FIBA U18 Women's Americas Championship 2022, while Jessica Roque will also join Clarke’s staff as an assistant after serving as a Performance Analyst last summer with the team.

Currently the Director of Basketball and Head Coach of both the men’s and women’s programs at Crestwood Preparatory College in the Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association (OSBA), Davis has developed several targeted Canadian athletes over the last several years and led the women’s team to a 2023 OSBA Championship title. As a player, Davis spent two years at UNC Wilmington and also captured the 2018 3x3 Canada Quest National Final as a member of Team Toronto.

In her third season as head coach of the Waterloo women’s basketball team, Roque led the Warriors to the most successful season in the history of the program.  Following a 17-5 regular season record and first overall in the OUA West division, Roque guided Waterloo to their first OUA semifinals appearance since 1986.  Prior to her time last summer with the U18 team, Roque was a training camp coach for Canada’s U19 men’s national team that would go on to capture the country’s first gold medal at a FIBA international competition.

Nick DeAdder, a performance analyst with the University of Acadia men’s basketball program, will return to join the staff in a similar role this summer.  Nick has been with the women’s program since 2015 assisting in scout preparation for Pan Am Games and FIBA Women’s AmeriCup.  In addition, he was performance analyst at the 2016 FIBA Americas U18 Women's Championship, FIBA U19 Women's Basketball World Cup 2017, and the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

The FIBA U19 Women’s Basketball World Cup 2023 will take place from July 15-23, 2023 in Madrid, Spain and will feature the best 16 teams in the world.  Canada’s best finish in the competition came in 2017 as the team captured a historic bronze medal, their highest finish at the event in program history.

Canada is in Group D and will face China (July 15, time TBD), Czech Republic (July 16, time TBD) and Egypt (July 18, time TBD).  All 16 teams participating in the event will advance to the competition's Final Phase with a single-elimination format in place from the Round of 16 onwards.  

Later this week, the team will gather in Portland, Oregon for a training camp with 16 U19 targeted athletes invited to participate.  The camp will be held in conjunction with the 2023 Nike Hoop Summit.   

Canada is currently ranked 5th overall in the FIBA women’s age-group rankings, presented by Nike, up three spots following the conclusion of the FIBA 2022 Youth Events.