South Carolina's Dawn Staley Commends Kim Caldwell Coaching 1 Week After Giving Birth
The South Carolina Gamecocks women's basketball team finished their five-game stretch of contests against ranked opponents emphatically on January 17, as they defeated the Tennessee Volunteers by a score of 70-63.
Despite the solid performance from the Gamecocks, the most impressive aspect of Monday's game came from Tennessee's head coach Kim Caldwell, who returned to the sidelines for the first time after giving birth just one week ago.
This is an extremely impressive feat, and Caldwell has been shown a ton of respect from fans for returning to her team so quickly. And Gamecocks Dawn Staley summed it up extremely well when speaking with the media after Monday's game.
“Women have the strength of 10 men," Staley said when asked about Caldwell, per an X post from WBIR Channel 10's Camille Gear.
"No doubt about it. I think she's very passionate about her team, and coaching here. I think she's got them off to a great start. Very exciting brand of basketball. And when you have a coach that really wants to hang another banner, it comes as a sacrifice," Staley added.
"She's probably a better woman than me. I don't know if I can be detached from my little one for that long. But she's got great help and she wanted to be here with her team. So I mean 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.
"I congratulated her, but it's going to take a lot of people to have that work-life balance that's needed when you have a newborn child," she concluded.
“Women have the strength of 10 men.”
— Camille Gear (@CamilleGearTV) January 28, 2025
Here's Dawn Staley's full answer on Lady #Vols head coach Kim Caldwell returning to the bench a week after giving birth to her son Conor. pic.twitter.com/dMGiWIlhEQ
Caldwell has certainly said and done a lot to win over Tennesse's fanbase in her first season as head coach.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.
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