CALDWELL- Brian Dorf has been a proverbial sponge in terms of soaking up all the knowledge and sound advice he can from his coaching brethren through the years of a still-burgeoning coaching career, and his current focus in addition to guiding his Mount St. Dominic Lions to future success on the hardwood is to promote all the positives that are emanating from the first-year Mount Summer League inside the Lions’ state-of-the-art Codey Gymnasium.
“Right now, we have a nice 10-team league, and the competition has been great,” said the Mount’s second-year head coach. “I’d like to see it eventually grow to 12, 14 or perhaps even 16 teams like Coach (Mike) Passero does with the Bloomfield Summer League.
“The interest is definitely there. We have a great group of coaches leading their teams and we’re getting 100 to 150 fans a night to come out and watch some good girls basketball action in a terrific setting here at Codey Gym.”
Teams are working to get better in all different areas during the July ‘live’ period as it sometimes referred as, whether it’s bonding and chemistry-building in the summer league, team workouts and individual skill development, perhaps AAU travel ball and summer showcases in addition to strength training.
“I think the girls need a balance between skill development and team concepts plus developing player IQ while learning as much as possible,” said Dorf. “Our girls are involved in a number of different sports and we all do our best to see that they can enjoy competing in all of them during the summer.”
As is the case with nearly every team in summer leagues some of the players are multi-sport athletes and may have commitments with other teams as well, which is the case for the Mount which is coming off a state championship softball season in which the Lions’ diamond squad was the No. 1 team in the Garden State.
The Mount’s rising junior Bella Iannitelli, who has been the hoops squad’s leading scorer the past two seasons, and senior Jill Cianfrocca, the nj.com softball state Player of the Year, who is also a terrific rebounding forward and ace defender for Dorf’s hoops squad, their busy 4th of July weekend has seen them with coach Rob Stern’s NJ Pride travel team at a national softball tournament in Colorado.
The Mount’s public school neighbor Caldwell, like many of the Group 2 or Group 1 public schools, also has its share of multi-sport athletes, yet girls basketball continues to thrive doing its summertime work while returning everyone from a 26-4 squad that reached the North 2, Group 2 state sectional final.
The Caldwell girls, who had a highly-competitive contest with a strong West Orange team in a 37-30 loss in Wednesday, July 2 action in the Mount Summer League, still have a young lineup with just one senior regular in Tea Fiore plus one of the state’s top juniors in Addy Keenan, who could not be at the July 2 contest vs. the Mountaineers as she was with her AAU team, the Jersey Gemz while preparing for her next week’s trip to Kentucky and then Chicago for the Nike Nationals.
“There is a lot going on during this important July ‘live’ period, and we understand the juggling act that some of the girls have to work around,” said Dorf. “Addy will be among the best two or three players in Essex County next season along with players such as Rhyan Watt and London Caldwell of West Orange.
“Bella (Iannitelli) from the Mount is also up there, and teams such as Glen Ridge and West Essex also have some very good players. It’s going to be an exciting time in the Super Conference next season and we’re just trying to do what we can with this summer league to help everyone get better.”
The Mount was 12-15 overall and just 2-8 in the SEC-American Division, but looks to be much improved in 2025-2026 while returning key veterans such as Iannitelli, Cianfrocca along sophomore guards Gia McArdle and Izzy DeLorenzo, one of the school’s soccer stars, and adding very promising freshmen such as Hailey Root and Sofia Gonzalez.
Root, who is the granddaughter of Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo, had a big 21-point effort, including five 3’s, in a 50-48 win vs. West Orange in a Mount Summer League game on July 2nd.
Caldwell, which was a perfect 10-0 in the SEC-Liberty Division last winter, appears more than ready to jump back up to the conference’s top division, the American, with the return of its leading scorer Keenan along with the Fiore sisters, senior Tea and sophomore Fallon, and other strong, young performers such as experienced, rising sophomores Eileen Kearns, Grace Hodgson, Aaliyah Rodriguez and Adriana Brown.
