Lenape High School’s baseball team is gearing up for the start of the season.
Although it is “too soon to tell” what improvements need to be made on the field, the team is preparing for an optimistic season against some of the best teams in the Olympic Conference, head coach Phil Fiore said.
Teams such as Washington Township, Eastern, Cherry Hill East, Cherokee and Shawnee are some of the best in the area.
“These are perennial winners. They are very well coached and have a lot of talented kids. That’s what makes it so challenging,” he said.
Last season, Lenape went 16–10, made it to the South Jersey Group 4 finals and lost to Cherokee, 3–0. Fiore started coaching the Lenape baseball team in 2008, a few months after he joined the Lenape High School staff as a physical education teacher. Before coming to Lenape, Fiore started his coaching career as varsity assistant coach at Highland High School in 1993. He then became the head coach in 1999 and moved on to Timber Creek High School when it opened its doors in 2001. He coached at Timber Creek until 2007, bringing the team to qualifications for the NJSIAA five out of his seven years and becoming Olympic National Champions in 2001.
During his time at Lenape, Fiore has brought home three Olympic American Conference Championships in 2008, 2010 and 2011; earned Diamond Classic bids in 2008, 2010 and 2011; and a Diamond Classic championship in 2010. After making it to the South Jersey Group 4 finals for the past three seasons and coming up short three times, Fiore said the team is optimistic this year.
“We would like to get the monkey off our backs this year and get it done. It will be extremely tough, but we will just have to play one game at a time,” he said.
According to Fiore, there are 13 seniors on the team and a number of key players to keep an eye out for this season. Fiore said he could name a handful of key players, but the team in its entirety is what wins championships.
“I feel it takes an entire team coming together, knowing their roles and responsibilities that wins a championship. It’s not about one or two or even three individuals,” he said.
With 13 seniors leaving the team after this year, Fiore said it would be difficult to fill any gaps left behind.
“This is a talented group of seniors. So yes, when these guys graduate it will be tough to fill their shoes,” he said.
This year the team has a “solid defense.” On the offensive side, “the team should be able to generate a pretty solid one through nine,” Fiore said.
Fiore has a long list of accomplishments as a baseball coach. Although he is busy coaching high school baseball, he isn’t completely ruling out moving up to coach for a college team. But he still has plenty of time, he said.
For now, Fiore said he is going to continue to coach at Lenape.
“I have four young boys and a wife at home, and it is tough enough now on my wife when I’m busy with baseball at the high school level, let alone at the college level. I am not going to rule it out of my future. I’m only 43 years old. A lot can happen over the next 10 years. We will see,” he said.
While keeping his future coaching career in mind, Fiore is still focused on this season.
“It’s a long season and anything can happen. Like I said, if we can stay healthy and keep the distractions to a minimum, we should have a fun season,” he said.
