Jillian Hayes

Jillian Hayes is in short one of Irish basketball’s greatest-ever players and servants.

Hall of Fame induction

2024

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International Player

67 Caps

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National Cup Wins

1998, 2000, 2001

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National League Wins

1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001

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National League MVP

x4

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Clubs associated with

Waterford Wildcats

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Jillian Hayes is roundly considered the outstanding Irish player of the 1990s, starring for the national team and propelling her beloved Waterford Wildcats to become the leading team of that era and one of the finest teams in Irish women’s Superleague history.

Renowned for her exceptional footwork in the post that would inspire future internationals from Michelle Fahy to her own daughters and current stars Sarah and Kate Hickey, Hayes won six Superleague titles (1995-1999, 2001), four National Top Four championships (1989, 1998-2000) and four league MVPs. Her record in the senior National Cup was also exceptional, reaching nine finals, the first in 1991 and the last in 2009, three of which she and Wildcats won (1998, 2000, 2001).

Although a self-confessed “big, awkward, lanky, uncoordinated kid” when taking up the sport as a first year in Our Lady of Mercy in Waterford, Hayes would blossom into a standout underage player, representing her country at U15 level and making her senior debut while only 17. She’d twice be named the Irish junior player of the year and would win underage national titles with both Wildcats at club level (1991 U19 Cup) and Mercy at schools (1988 league and Cup).
She would go on to be capped by her country 67 times across the age-groups, including captaining the senior team to a Four Countries title in the mid-nineties.

Her involvement with Irish teams would not end there. Since 2019 she has served as an assistant coach to the senior women’s national team as well as several underage national squads.

Her coaching contribution to her own club, Wildcats, meanwhile, has been immense, taking everyone from the U8s to their Superleague teams and everything in-between; only this past January she guided the club to the U20 National Cup to go with the one she and daughters Kate and Sarah also won for Wildcats in 2022.

A popular, genial character, Jillian Hayes is in short one of Irish basketball’s greatest-ever players and servants and an automatic choice for its Hall of Fame.