MONTCLAIR– Montclair State head men’s basketball coach Ted Fiore, who led the Red Hawks program for the past 16 seasons, will retire effective October 14, 2014.

Fiore’s retirement brings a close to a storied coaching career that spans nearly five decades beginning at the high school level where he also coached baseball before embarking on a very successful tenure on the hardwood. In 26 seasons Fiore registered an overall record of 384-259, averaging 15 wins per season while taking his team to the post-season nine times.

Assistant coach Daren Rowe, who has been with Fiore since 1998, has been named the interim coach for the 2014-15 campaign. Rowe served as acting head coach for the 2012-13 season when Fiore underwent knee replacement surgery.

"Retiring is a difficult decision, but made even more difficult when leaving a wonderful working environment,” said Fiore. “I want to thank all the people - administration, staff and student-athletes, who have made coaching at Montclair State a pleasurable experience. I wish my successor the best, and hope their experience is as rich and pleasurable as mine was."

Taking over as the 11^th head men’s basketball coach at MSU, Fiore fashioned a 233-149 record for a .610 winning percentage, third-best among all Montclair State coaches who roamed the sidelines for five or more seasons. His 233 wins for the Red Hawks are second behind Montclair State Hall of Famer Ollie Gelston, who won 303 games.

In addition, the Red Hawks as a program have had just three players named to the National Basketball Coaches Association All-American Team since 1967 and Fiore has coached two of them - Anthony Peeples (1999) and Gian Paul Gonzalez (2006). Under Fiore's watch, the Red Hawks have had 25 All-NJAC selections and have claimed NJAC Rookie of the Year honors five times.

From the moment he stepped onto the sidelines at Panzer Gym, Fiore immediately turned Montclair State into a perennial contender. In his first season, Fiore took MSU to the ECAC Metro Tournament final and followed that up with the 2000 ECAC Championship as his team went 20-8, the first time in 16 years that a Montclair State team had won 20 games in a season. Included in that season was MSU’s first trip to the NJAC Tournament in five years, two in-season tournament titles, and an undefeated non-conference mark (the first since the 1969-70 season). Fiore was named the NJAC Coach of the Year.

In 2002, Fiore continued to guide the Red Hawks’ rise as he led Montclair to a 19-9 mark and a 12-6 record in the rugged New Jersey Athletic Conference. The league mark was good enough for first place, giving MSU its first regular-season championship since the 1983-84 season and a home game in the conference playoffs for the first time since that same season. Fiore also recorded the 200th victory of his career as MSU defeated rival William Paterson, 54-51.

The following year, Fiore guided MSU to the most successful season it had seen in two decades. With a talented cast playing his patented defensive style, Montclair went 23-6 (one win shy of the school record), captured the 2003 New Jersey Athletic Conference championship for the first time since 1982 and earned its first trip to the NCAA Division III Tournament in eight years. Back in the NCAAs for the first time since 1995, Montclair made the most of its opportunity, winning its first two games and reaching the “Sweet 16” before closing out the campaign in the Sectional semifinals. Not since 1984 had MSU played that deep into the month of March.

Since then Fiore has put together several other memorable seasons, including the 2008-09 campaign as Montclair State went 21-7 and captured the NJAC North Division championship. In 2011, MSU went 20-8 and reached the conference title contest for the first time since 2003. Fiore, the 2008 NJAC Coach of the Year, matched Gelston with his fourth 20-win season.

Along the way Fiore has picked up a pair of milestones. He captured his 300th career win against New Jersey City University in February 2008 and three years later joined Gelston as the only members of the men’s basketball 200-win club at MSU when his squad clipped William Paterson, 50-47. Fiore is one of nine coaches in MSU athletic history to win 200 or more games. Also during that time Fiore was inducted into the Newark Hall of Fame.
“It has been a pleasure to work with Ted Fiore these past 16 years.  His passion for and commitment to the game of basketball are unparalleled,” said Montclair State Director of Athletic Holly Gera.  “He is an excellent teacher and coach of the game, and he has made a lasting impact on New Jersey basketball at the high school, Division I and Division III levels.  In addition to imparting basketball knowledge, he has mentored countless young men as players and coaches.  I will miss his animated coaching style and great sense of humor.  We wish him a happy, healthy and long retirement.”

Before he came to Montclair State, Fiore carved out his own reputation as the head coach of Division I St. Peter’s College in Jersey City, where he ran the Peacocks’ program from 1986-95, compiling a 151-110 mark, placing himself second on the school’s all-time list for coaching victories. Four times during his tenure did St. Peter’s reach the post-season, including two trips to the “Big Dance” (1991 and 1995) otherwise known as the NCAA Tournament. He was named the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference’s (MAAC) Coach of the Year three times and was twice voted the Coach of the Year by the New Jersey Coaches and Sportswriter’s Association and the Metropolitan Sportswriters association.

Called “...one of the best, if not the best, teachers of man-to-man defense in the entire country,” Fiore has published a guide, “Man to Man Defensive Adjustments,” for use by coaches at various clinics throughout the country and has produced a video series entitled “Basketball - Steps to Success,” which has been viewed on New Jersey cable networks.

Before entering the collegiate coaching ranks, Fiore built his overall coaching reputation at Cedar Grove High School and Our Lady of the Valley (now closed) in Orange. In 15 years, Fiore posted a record of 290-78 and 220-83 as a baseball coach. All totaled, he was 510-161 in two sports, for a high school winning percentage of .760.

Fiore first made his mark in college athletics at Seton Hall University, where he played basketball and starred in baseball. A member of the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame, he went on to play two seasons in the Cincinnati Reds organization.

In between his stops at St. Peter’s and Montclair State, Fiore was busy on the Fox/Madison Square Garden Network, and with SportsChannel as a college basketball TV analyst. He also worked with Comcast Cable TV and has been an advance scout for the New Jersey Nets and Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

The father of five children; daughters Faith Anne, Debby and Dina, and sons Ted and Kevin in addition to several grandchildren, Fiore was the Vice Principal of Pequannock High School before heading to Montclair State.