Tye Dorset is best leader Lenape basketball coach has had in 17 years of coaching

Matt Wolf feels like he’s wasted a few timeouts this season.

The Lenape High School boys’ basketball coach had good reason to stop play, but before he could speak to his kids, junior Tye Dorset had done it for him.

“Tye has already put his arm around one of the players and is telling the kid what needs to happen, what the mistake was,” Wolf said. “He’s like coach, I got him already. I’m like great, why did I waste a timeout? I didn’t need to call a timeout again. Tell me next time Tye.”

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Wolf called Dorset the greatest leader he’s had in 17 years of coaching, a statement made more remarkable considering Dorset just turned 16 in late September.

“I’m kind of at a loss for words,” Dorset says after hearing Wolf speak. “It’s great praise. He’s had some pretty good guys here.”

Dorset has become one of them.

A sophomore starter on last year’s South Jersey Group 4 championship team, Dorset has taken his game to new heights this winter as he leads the team in points (19.3 average), rebounds (5.1), assists and steals as Lenape has risen to No. 6 in the South Jersey Mean 15 rankings, opening the year 9-2 despite losing a trio of star seniors, including Rutgers freshman Derek Simpson.

“Early off we had a team meeting and one of the things I said was I hate that people are writing us off and they haven’t even seen us this year,” Dorset said. “We’ve been a little angry. People don’t really care about us anymore because of what we don’t have.”

Dorset takes those frustrations out on his opponents. His teammates get a much different side of him.

Lenape was running a drill during the preseason and it wasn’t going well. Dorset and the defensive unit were on the court for 10 minutes as one player struggled with his assignment.

“Where most players might get on that kid to stop messing up, (Dorset) gave him a compliment,” Wolf recalled. “You’re doing so well, you’re almost there, you just go to clean up this one little mistake and you’ve got it. He just tried to support him instead of jumping all over him. He always tries to support his teammates. That’s a pretty mature thing for a 16-year-old who has to play defense for 10 straight minutes because one of his teammates is making a mistake.”

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Junior Matt Liebling remembers a scrimmage against Notre Dame and his own struggles guarding Notre Dame forward and Army recruit Stesher Mathelier.

“He’s really good,” Liebling said. “He’s a lot faster than I kind of thought he was, and he was beating me down the court. He was getting fast-break layups and Tye pulled me aside and he told me don’t let him beat you down the court. There’s no way he’s faster than you. He should not be beating you down the court and it really motivated me to get down the court faster.”

“You don’t get down on yourself,” Liebling explained about Dorset’s talks. “He has that way of motivating you to do it better as opposed to getting you upset.”

Wolf doesn’t name captains at Lenape. He lets his players sort it out.

He was curious what would happen when the officials called for captains during the team’s first scrimmage.

“All the kids looked at him,” Wolf said of Dorset. “He knew right away, I’m the speaking captain. That’s who I would’ve picked. I didn’t say it, they just sort of gravitate to him. When we break down the huddle, he’s the one they all look to – Lenape on three, family on six. That’s him.”

So is this year’s version as the alpha of the squad.

Dorset has long been one of, if not the top players on his AAU teams. It was unusual for him taking a backseat last season.

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He earned his teammates’ respect with how he handled the secondary role, but he understood at the end of the campaign that more would be expected of him this winter.

“I remember (coach) telling me be more consistent, he wanted my handle to get a little better, and defensively I’ve got to tighten up some things,” Dorset said. “When I would work out, get a little tired, I would remember what he was telling me. I remember how good we were, I want to be good again. When I was working out and I’d get a little fatigued, I’d remember the things he doesn’t think I’m good at and I want to get good at.”

Wolf quickly interrupted him.

“Not ‘not good’ at,” Wolf laughed. “Everybody can improve.”

Wolf knew Dorset could.

“Last year during the Cherry Hill East game here, their whole game plan was to pick on him,” Wolf said. “They tried to get switches to get Drew (Greene) on him and then to go to the basket. They tried to do the same thing in the South Jersey final and they couldn’t because he got better at it. One hundred percent the game plan was the same and they didn’t have the same success. It was a credit to him getting better and working on it.”

Seeing Dorset’s ability, development and leadership puts a smile on Wolf’s face. He loves to point out he gets another year with Dorset before the still-growing guard makes the jump to the next level, and Wolf has no doubt he will.

“He’s a Division-I basketball player,” Wolf said. “He’s only 16. He should be a sophomore. He should’ve been a freshman doing what he did last year. He should be a sophomore. He’s growing. Every time I look at him he’s bigger. … I’ll be reaching out to a lot of (schools at the end of the season). Thankfully, because of Derek, I have a whole lot of contacts and they all know my number.”

Josh Friedman has produced award-winning South Jersey sports coverage for the Courier Post, The Daily Journal and the Burlington County Times for more than a decade. If you have or know of an interesting story to tell, reach out on Twitter at @JFriedman57 or via email at jfriedman2@gannettnj.com. You can also contact him at 856-486-2431. Help support local journalism with a subscription.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Lenape boys basketball following lead of junior guard Tye Dorset