Consistency is an understatement for women’s basketball senior guard Saniah Caldwell.
As a team captain, Caldwell plans to put her personal goals on the back burner as her team looks for its first Ivy League championship since 2019. Averaging 4.6 points per game with 23 steals and nine blocks in the 2024-25 season, Caldwell has shown a tenacity and leadership that will serve as a foundation for the whole team. Yet her motivation and love for the game reside primarily in elements that exist off the hardwood.
While other kindergarteners were knee-deep in crayons and counting, Caldwell found herself with a basketball in her hands, marking the beginning of her athletic career. In her younger years of play, Caldwell and her family moved around the country, so she was exposed to many styles of play and a variety of competitive settings. However, nothing quite compares to where she settled in sixth grade: North New Jersey, arguably one of the most competitive regions for women’s basketball in the country. Here, Caldwell joined the New Jersey Sparks, a team affiliated with the exclusive Nike circuit.
“I’ve been able to play against the top people, obviously, in one of the top states. … It just makes your game better. It makes you appreciate everything more,” Caldwell said.
After a high school state championship title, an all-state nod, and a list of sectional and county championships, Caldwell’s success did not stop at the high school level. Despite numerous illustrious offers, Caldwell chose Penn for hoops, "the family away from home", and a plethora of other reasons that included Sydnei Caldwell, her older sister.
Sydnei Caldwell transferred to Penn to continue her basketball career and finish her final year of undergraduate studies, allowing the Caldwell sisters to reunite as teammates for the 2022-23 basketball season.
“It was obviously always fun playing with her, but I think we did a lot better in college playing together, because she was definitely helping me, showing her the ropes and everything,” Saniah Caldwell said. “It was just fun.”
However, Saniah and Sydnei are not the only athletes in the Caldwell household. Their mother, Kenya, was a standout track and field athlete in college and is in Tennessee’s Track and Field Hall of Fame. Their father, Isaiah, proved his athleticism on the football field, earning a spot in Middle Tennessee State’s Football Hall of Fame. He had an 11-year NFL career and now coaches in the league. Growing up in such an athletic environment, it would have been an injustice for Saniah Caldwell not to pursue athletics herself.
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“I think from a young age, our parents just created a competitive atmosphere in our family. … They want us to win everything. Why wouldn’t you?” Saniah Caldwell said. “They were taught that, and they instilled that in us.”
Caldwell made an instant impact for the Red and Blue as a freshman, appearing in 17 games and accumulating four steals. Her skills only expanded during her sophomore year, as she collected seven three-pointers during the season and recorded nine steals and 31 assists.
Caldwell credited most of her athletic success to the environment in which she grew up and her biggest role models: her parents. She admires their humble attitudes and plans to follow their example. Her defensive mindset, primarily instilled by her former linebacker father, is abundantly evident in her style of play today. Yet, Caldwell’s maturity off the court may be what reflects her upbringing the most.
“Her work ethic is phenomenal in everything she does,” Penn women’s basketball coach Mike McLaughlin said. “She comes from an athletic family. I coached her sister sitting here. They’re just professionals, you know, they’re professional college students. … She’s first class all the way.”
Caldwell has found a chosen family in the Penn women’s basketball team. As a senior leader, Caldwell plans on prioritizing her teammates’ health both on and off the court this season, further reflecting her selfless nature. She also plans to remain a fountain of encouragement through the long and testing winter basketball season.
“I feel like that’s the main thing that I focus on, making sure everyone feels comfortable,” Caldwell said. “People come to me asking a lot of questions because [I] have the experience. … I always want to just make sure I’m prepared to answer the questions and just help everyone out.”
Driven by the support of her family — both back home in New Jersey and on the Palestra’s hardwood — Caldwell is looking to take the basketball world by storm this upcoming season.
Sports reporter Ellie Clark contributed reporting.
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