Vol Club Confidential: Kim Caldwell
New Tennessee Lady Vols head coach Kim Caldwell joined Vol Club Confidential sponsored by Knoxville Smiles to discuss her transition to Rocky Top and so much more after one month on the job.
“It’s been hard to wrap your head around at this point,” Caldwell said. “My Alma Mater is in a one stop light town in central West Virginia. The population is 1,400 max and so there is not a Wal-Mart or a Mall. There is barely cell phone service. You go 15 miles of backroads to get there. It’s a special place, a great place. It’s a huge part of my heart but to go from there to one year later you are the head coach at Tennessee, it’s very hard to wrap your head around. You want make those people proud and remember where you came from.”
Assembling a staff is something she knew she would have to do quickly but finding two quality assistants with SEC experience like Roman Tubner and Gabe Lazo wasn’t an easy task. It wasn’t like she came in with a ton of coaching contacts.
“Flying by the seat of my pants,” Caldwell said. “I didn’t think I would be here. I didn’t know anyone from the SEC. I was a Division II coach so there is a lot of contacts I don’t have or I didn’t have but I have them now. I didn’t need them. Just making sure when I got here I try to do things the right way and kind of a blank slate which is nice but just making sure I’m doing it the right way and getting the best people in for Tennessee.”
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She’s spent a lot of her time building a staff and a roster which means a lot of phone calls and she does that normally walking around because she doesn’t like to sit still. But each day as she wraps up, she normally finds time to envision what could become.
“I don’t sit well so I do a lot of phone calls and I do them outside,” Caldwell said said. “Which is nice because the weather here is phenomenal. Every day on my way out, there is multiple ways to get to my car and I’ll usually cut across the arena and try to picture it packed and picture it on game day and what it’s like. It’s an incredible arena and an incredible fanbase and an incredible opportunity.”
