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Caldwell's Tea Fiore is senior leader for a young Lady Chiefs basketball team and combines with junior guard Addy Keenan as a pair of veteran starters set to return for next season. Tea comes from a sports family of note including her grandfather, legendary high school and college coach Ted Fiore who smiles as he is taking in one his granddaughters' games in the James Caldwell High School gym last winter. Youthful Lady Chiefs, including Tea (fourth from left), get together after a recent game in the Mount Summer League inside Codey Gym. (Photos by Jeff Stiefbold)
CALDWELL- As the ‘elder statesman’ on the Caldwell girls basketball team rising senior Tea Fiore knows that there is a leadership role to assume both now during the summer’s important ‘live’ period of practice, weight training and summer league games, and looking ahead to what is projected to be a 2025-2026 season with high expectations for a young, but experienced Lady Chiefs hoops squad.
“As a senior with a very young group comes a lot of responsibility to try and help lead our team,” said the 5-foot-7 combo guard with an ability to produce on the perimeter or inside after averaging 15 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4 assists and 3.2 steals per game for a 26-4 North 2, Group 2 state tournament runner-up squad last season. “It’s really important for us to hit the weight room right now during the summer because getting stronger is just as important as getting in the gym and getting shots up.
“I try to reach out to everyone on a daily basis and send pictures of what we’re doing in our workouts, while doing what I can to get the girls into the weight room as much as possible.
“I try to share my voice and show that I’m there because we have such a young team and the players need leadership to get to where we want to get to next season.”
Caldwell, which returns its entire rotation from the 2024-2025 winter campaign – including five freshmen who are now rising sophomores – has been playing in the first-year Mount St. Dominic Summer League at the Lions’ Codey gymnasium where the elder Fiore looks to continue to help ignite a chemistry-laden group under the guidance of veteran head coach Amanda Keenan, and featuring one of the state’s rising junior guards to watch in Amanda’s daughter, Addy Keenan (18.7 ppg. last season).
Among the rising sophomores to watch is Tea’s younger sister Fallon, another returning starter for the Lady Chiefs, along with Eileen Kearns, Grace Hodgson, Aaliyah Rodriguez and Adriana Brown, who are looking to once again be key options in the rotation, and the elder Fiore is ready to help lead that talented, young group.
“Tea does so many different things to help our team,” said Coach Keenan. “She’s always been motivated and driven to be the best player she can be, she has great leadership skills, and she’s a tremendous student in the classroom as well.
“She’ll find the path she wants to follow and be a success at whatever she chooses to do in her life.”
Fiore will certainly entertain the idea of playing women’s college basketball, but what’s most important for her is how she will fit in academically at her next destination on the education ladder.
“I would like to one day be an orthodontist and I’m focusing on finding the right college where I can begin that academic journey,” she said. “Perhaps I would like to play at a NESCAC (New England Small College Athletic Conference) type high-academic school and we’ll have to see how basketball might fit into that picture.”
Caldwell’s senior leader has natural athletic talent, including coming from a family that loves its sports.
Tea and Fallon have a younger sister, Kendall, a promising rising seventh-grader which means their parents Ted Fiore, Jr., and Tara, will have plenty of athletic events to attend for many more years to come.
And, one of the other devoted fans from the family who is frequently at his granddaughters’ games is former longtime college and high school basketball coach Ted Fiore, the Seton Hall University Hall of Famer, who excelled in both baseball and basketball at Seton Hall Prep and then the diamond sport at the University before embarking first on a minor league baseball stint in the Cincinnati Reds organization and then a coaching career in both the high school and college ranks that included guiding St. Peter’s University to a pair of appearances in ‘March Madness,’ a.k.a. the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
Tea is a name that is a combination of letters from in the first names of both her dad and mom.
“If I had been a boy I was supposed to have been named after my grandfather,” said Tea with a wide smile. “He’s been really supportive, and he coaches me in his own way.
“I call him after all my games and he and my dad will give me feedback which I really appreciate because I really want to continue to improve and become the best player I can be.
“My grandfather talks to me about my shooting form and trying to put up a softer shot to give it the best chance to go in, so I make sure to concentrate on that.
“I know all about his great coaching career and I feel very fortunate to have all the positive input he provides for me and my sisters.”
All the work that Tea and her teammates put in now, including continuing to compete in the Mount’s Summer League, is all a tune-up for what the Chiefs hope is a banner 2025-2026 campaign.
Caldwell, which was a perfect 10-0 last winter in the Super Essex Conference-Liberty Division, is making the move up next season to the SEC’s top division, the American, with home-and-home contests on tap against the likes of reigning Essex County Tournament and Group 4 state runner-up West Orange, along with other solid teams such as reigning Group 1 state runner-up Glen Ridge and University.
“We’re really excited because the competition we’ll see is going to be a level-up from last season, and we’re ready for it,” said Fiore. “We’ve proven that we belong in the upper division and we want to compete against teams that are our caliber and maybe even higher.
“I think our Madison game (in the North 2, Group 2 state sectional final) last season was very important for us to experience, and even though we lost (55-37) the crowd in our gym was great!
It was awesome to see everyone showing up for us and appreciating how much hard work we put in to get to that point. “Playing in tough games in our conference’s top division next season will help prepare us for counties and states.”
NOTES- Tea’s grandfather Ted Fiore was a successful high school basketball and baseball coach at both Cedar Grove and Our Lady of the Valley high schools (510-161, .760 record combined in both sports) before embarking on his superb college basketball coaching career which included nine seasons and the pair of NCAA tourney appearances at St. Peter’s (151-110, .579) and then 16 seasons at Division 3 Montclair State University (233-149, .610). He finished as the second winningest coach at MSU just behind the legendary Ollie Gelston (303-285, .518)…Ted Fiore was also a former advance scout for the NBA’s New Jersey Nets and Toronto Raptors. A younger sister, Denise Fiore, is a former women’s basketball coach at George Washington University. Another sister, Phyllis, who passed away in 2021, was the Sheppard family matriarch as the wife of the late, great SHU baseball coach Mike Sheppard, Sr., and mother of current, longtime successful SHP baseball coach Mike Sheppard, Jr., who is currently the second on the all-time N.J. high school coaching victories list...Tea's dad Ted Fiore, Jr., is a former standout scholastic guard at West Essex.
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Caldwell senior Tea Fiore is a strong all-around player for Lady Chiefs and is someone youngsters like sophomore Aaliyah Rodriguez can look to as a leader. Among Tea's biggest fans is grandfather Ted Fiore who is seen during his coaching days at Montclair State where he is the second-winningest coach in MSU hoops history. (SC photo and by Jeff Siefbold)
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