COACH KIM CALDWELL: STRENGTH AND SACRIFICE

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One week after giving birth to her first child and while battling the flu, University of Tennessee women’s basketball head coach Kim Caldwell returned to the sidelines on Monday night, CNN reports.

The first-year head coach received a stand­ing ova­tion at Food City Cen­ter in Knoxville before her No. 18 Lady Vol­un­teers faced No. 2 South Car­oli­na in a high-stakes con­fer­ence matchup.

“I wasn’t expect­ing it,” Cald­well said of the ova­tion. “I try to sneak in and go unno­ticed. But it made com­ing back worth it.”

Caldwell’s son, Conor Scott, was born just a week ear­li­er, weigh­ing six pounds, 10 ounces. Named after her father, the baby arrived as Cald­well tem­porar­i­ly stepped away from her team. Miss­ing only one game, she returned to prac­tice on Fri­day, deter­mined to be there for her play­ers despite the phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al chal­lenges of new moth­er­hood.

“Adren­a­line kept me going,” she admit­ted after the game. “I’ll feel it tomor­row, but I appre­ci­ate my team and staff for step­ping up. It’s hard for me to yell, so I relied on them to help run the show.”

South Car­oli­na head coach Dawn Sta­ley, a four-time nation­al coach of the year, praised Caldwell’s resilience. “Women have the strength of ten men,” Sta­ley said. “It’s incred­i­ble what she’s doing. When women make sac­ri­fices like this, we need to hon­or them.”

Although Ten­nessee fell 70–63, the Lady Vols fought hard, inspired by their coach’s return. Senior guard Sama­ra Spencer said, “We know how much she’s sac­ri­ficed for us, so we want­ed to give her our all.” Senior for­ward Jil­lian Holling­shead added, “She just had a baby, isn’t feel­ing 100%, and still shows up for us. That’s the kind of leader she is.”

For Cald­well, the moment wasn’t just about basketball—it was about set­ting an exam­ple. “Being here means show­ing my team that we fight through chal­lenges togeth­er,” she said.

South Car­oli­na secured its 15th con­sec­u­tive win and set an SEC record with 55 straight reg­u­lar-sea­son con­fer­ence vic­to­ries. Ten­nessee (15−5, 3–5 SEC) will look to bounce back when