John Moore, head coach of Westmont men's basketball has announced the signing of Tom Garlepp of Perth, Australia to play for the Warriors beginning in the fall of 2007. However, rather than making a trek from half-way around the world to reach the Montecito campus, the 6-9, junior forward will simply move down the coast from the campus of UC Santa Barbara where he has played the last two seasons.


"We felt we needed to fill Sant's position with a transfer," said Moore referring to Santiago Aguirre who recently graduated after leading the Warriors with 18.0 points and 7.8 rebounds in his senior season. "I'm not sure we thought we could get a player of Tom's quality. 'Elated' is too shallow a word to use to express our feelings about Tom's decision to join the team. Here is a guy that is acclimated to Santa Barbara, knows our program and is ready to come in and play his best basketball. And he has been coached very well through the two years he's been at UCSB and through the Australian Institute of Sports (AIS)."


Garlepp, who was born in Calgary, Alberta but grew up in Perth Australia, played one year with AIS before coming to the States. In the Australian under-20 championship, he averaged 12 points and 10.5 rebounds per game. Garlepp led the team with 39 blocks, including ten in one game. As a freshman at UC Santa Barbara, Garlepp played in 26 games, averaging 9.3 minutes of action per game.


In the Gaucho's season opening win against San Francisco, Garlepp posted 16 points and seven rebounds. In his sophomore season, Garlepp increased his playing time to an average of 13.8 minutes per contest. Against Portland, he recorded a season high 11 points to go with five rebounds in a 75-67 UCSB win. "Tom is different from Sant in that Sant grew up in the program," said Moore, "but he does some similar things. He is a good passer, shot blocker and rebounder. He is a very good shooter who can face the basket or step out and shoot threes. He can put the ball on the floor and bring it from basket to basket." Moore was very positive about the way in which UC Santa Barbara head coach Bob Williams' contributed to the process. "I think Bob Williams is a class act," said Moore. "Once Tom decided to leave UCSB, Bob made contact with us and said that he is supportive of Tom's coming to Westmont, supportive of our program and supportive of Tom. Bob wouldn't send us a guy whom he didn't feel would fit well here. Tom's transfer will only improve the relationship that we have with UCSB."