Kim Caldwell, head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers women’s basketball team, responds to a play during the first half of the team’s January 27 game against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tennessee. One week after giving birth to her first child, a son named Conor Scott Caldwell, Caldwell resumed instructing on Monday. (Image courtesy of Getty Images/Johnnie Izquierdo)Getty Pictures
Knoxville, Tennessee One week after giving birth to her first child, Kim Caldwell, the coach of the Tennessee women’s basketball team, made her coaching comeback for Monday night’s game against South Carolina.
Before the Volunteers’ 70-63 loss against the No. 2 Gamecocks, 12,033 fans at Food City Center’s Thompson-Boling Arena gave Caldwell a standing ovation. On Thursday, Caldwell missed just one game as Tennessee’s coach, as the Volunteers fell to No. 7 Texas, 80-76.
“I definitely wasn’t expecting it,” Caldwell said of receiving a standing ovation upon her return. “I try to sneak in and so I sneak in the back. I always try to go unnoticed, but it made it worth it. It made coming back worth it.”
South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley also commended Caldwell for her return to coaching just one week after giving birth to a son, Conor Scott Caldwell.
“When you have a coach that really wants to hang another banner, it comes as a sacrifice. She’s probably a better woman than me, I don’t know if I could be detached from my little one for that long, but she’s got great help, and she wanted to be here with her team.
“Women have to make decisions like that, and when they do, I feel like other women should honor them and let them know that we see you, we feel you, we hear you, and I congratulated her,” Staley added.
