College basketball coach returns days after giving birth to first child

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee women’s basketball coach Kim Caldwell returned to coaching for the Volunteers’ game against South Carolina Monday night, one week after she gave birth to her first child. Caldwell was greeted by a standing ovation from 12,033 fans at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center ahead of the Volunteers’ 70-63 loss to the No. 2 Gamecocks. Caldwell missed just one game coaching Tennessee when the Volunteers lost to No. 7 Texas, 80-76, on Thursday. “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. “Women have the strength of 10 men, no doubt about it,” Staley said. “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. Caldwell is in her first season as head coach of the Volunteers’ women’s basketball program. She previously served as head coach at Marshall from 2023-24 and Division II Glenville State from 2016-23. She has an overall record of 232-36 at Tennessee, Marshall and Glenville State. Tennessee’s next game is scheduled for Sunday at 3 p.m. Eastern at the Missouri Tigers in Columbia, Missouri.