National attention on the Lady Vols rapidly reshaped what people believed could be possible
Knoxville, Tenn. – Just days after giving birth to her first child, Lady Vols’ Head Coach Kim Caldwell was back with the team in preparation for Monday’s showdown against South Carolina.
The acceptance and support to choose to be both a mom and a coach is something Joan Cronan believes she saw change when the legendary Pat Summitt became a mother.
“I think she was so visible, and it was the first time a coach had been on television, and we did the television series The HBO, and so I think that helped a lot,” said Cronan.
That quickly prompted a shift in what would considered normal.
“They said, ‘Well, if Pat can do it, I can do it too.’ And I just think it’s wonderful being a mother and being a coach,” said Cronan.
A strong belief Cronan had even before she came to Tennessee to be the Lady Vols’ Athletic Director.
“As an AD, I always tell my coaches to treat every one of our athletes like they were my daughter, and what would they do? And I think that’s important that you come and look at it that way.”
Though, she knew it would take more than determination alone to be able to be both.
“It’s important to have a balanced life, not to say it’s easy, it’s not. You have to plan ahead. Pat was the best at dual focus, being able to do more than two or three things at a time. I think it’s important that you keep your priorities straight,” said Cronan.
Former Tennessee Lady Vols Athletic Director and a member of seven different halls of fame, Cronan has seen first-hand the drastic change in support for coaches like Kim Caldwell who are now also mothers. A new reality Cronan is very excited to witness.
“It has been absolutely tremendous, from coming in and doing what she’s doing on the coaching to now handling the birth of a new child, and being able to coach and be a good mother, I’m excited, and I know she’ll do a great job,” said Cronan.
Cronan knew at a young age she wanted to be involved in sports in some capacity. She would go on to do more than just that. She helped shape the industry of women’s athletics.
She did so while being a new mom to two young daughters.
When she moved from Knoxville to Charleston, Stacey was two weeks old and Kristi was 17 months. Her husband just accepted a job at The Citadel, and while juggling two babies she was determined to stay in athletics and be a coach.
“So, I literally went down to the College of Charleston, made a cold call to the president of The College of Charleston, and said, ‘You need to have women’s athletics,’ because this was right in 1972 when Title IX came out. And he looked at me and he said, ‘You know, we do.’ And so I don’t know whether it was a good negotiator or bad negotiator, but I walked out of his office and I was volleyball coach, basketball coach, tennis coach, and AD,” laughed Cronan.
“So I got to start the program, which was really special to me. You should have seen my husband’s face when I came home. ‘So guess what? I got a job!’ and it is,” motioning the number of jobs she just inadvertently accepted.
“I immediately surrounded myself with great people, and we moved in and 10 years later, we were named the number one division two program in the country, and fortunately, that’s when Tennessee came knocking on my door and said, ‘Would you come back and be AD?’ And we took that opportunity, and never have looked back,” said Cronan.
The other task she may have unknowingly agreed to was to be the team’s bus driver.
“Well, you just made it happen in 24 hours,” laughed Cronan. “You didn’t sleep much. That would be it. But, you know, I think that everybody wants to help in learning to accept help. I have loved watching this team this year and how excited the girls are about Kim Caldwell be getting ready to have a baby, and so they’ve kind of adopted that already. So I can’t wait to see how they respond when we actually have somebody sitting right there.”
As Lady Vols’ Kim Caldwell embarks on a new journey as a mother and a coach, it brought back memories of when Cronan was in a similar situation.
She highlighted just how much becoming a mom changed the way she approached coaching.
“I think it makes you plan ahead, it makes you work harder,” said Cronan. “I’ve got to give a lot of credit to my husband because he was a great partner in helping. And I think Kim Caldwell has that right now. I’m so excited about them (her husband, Justin) working together with the baby. But you can’t do it all by yourself, and you have to be willing to reach out. But it changes your life in that, you to me, you can’t see a child born and not believe there’s a God, and there’s a responsibility in to do that. Have that little baby, and all of a sudden they’re growing up and they’re having babies.”
Now, as the industry changed and the head coach isn’t also the bus driver, it’s more possible than effort to thrive being both.
“We’re in a time that women have opportunities to do whatever they want to do, and I hope that they can take that opportunity to be the best, that they can be the best wife, the best partner, the best mom, whatever they choose to do. They have that opportunity. And I think that’s the best thing,” said Cronan.
She also witnessed Summitt balance being both a coach and mom when she had Tyler in 1990.
“I get asked all the time, ‘What made Pat Summitt a great coach?’ And she was a great teacher, and she had the ability to focus on what was important. And so when Tyler came along, it changed that focus a little bit, and I think it made her a better understanding of a person and also be able to do it all,” said Cronan.
Cronan and Lady Vol for Life, Shelley Collier Sexton believe that Summitt becoming a mother made her a better coach.
How can one dispute it when she went on to win six more National Championships?
“Over the years, I’ve had lots of athletes call back and ask for advice. One of the neatest phone calls I ever got was from Shelley,” said Cronan.
It came when Sexton was considering a coaching position with the Webb School of Knoxville.
“(Collier) said, ‘I watched you with your kids handle that. Do you think I can go into a high school job like this?’ And I said, ‘You absolutely can, because you have that focus, you have that love, and you have to have a partner that’s going to help you, too,” said Cronan.
Cronan continued, “That was just to be a really wonderful compliment for her to call and ask not about how much I should get paid or how much you know, what are the responsibilities? But, ‘Can I do it as a mom and a coach?’ And my answer is, ‘Yes!'”
Surrounding yourself with the right people to help you along is the greatest piece of advice Cronan can give. From her vantage point, she believes Caldwell has just that.
“Kim’s mom sat with me at a game recently, and it was, it was so much fun to see her how proud she was of Kim. And, you know, one of the things she said that really hit me. She said, ‘I’m so proud of everything Kim has done, but I’m really the most proud of her faith and how she lives that faith through coaching.’ And of course, that was very important to me, and so I like that. But then she said, ‘You know, as soon as Kim goes into labor, I’m on my way, and I’m here to help, and I’ll stay as long as Kim needs me to stay.’ And I thought that was so good. And they were she said, ‘Do you think Kim really knows what’s going to happen?’ I said, ‘No, none of us do, but you adjust.'”