Former Mountaineer standout player Christal Caldwell was hired as an assistant coach in July, 2017. Caldwell is the first Mountaineer student-athlete to play under coach Mike Carey and return to Morgantown as an assistant coach.
 
Caldwell was instrumental in working with the guards in her first season back at the WVU Coliseum. Chania Ray ranked near the top of the league in assists per game, despite never having played point guard until she arrived in Morgantown. Additionally, Katrina Pardee continued to work her way up the program’s all-time 3-point shooting list.
 
The Mountaineers grabbed a top-25 win over Texas A&M in the Big 12/SEC Challenge, and also triumphed over rivals Virginia Tech and Pitt. The team made its second straight Big 12 Tournament Semifinals, and later embarked on a run to the Postseason WNIT Finals.
 
Prior to her return to Morgantown, she spent two seasons at La Salle; where she helped the Explorers to an incredible turnaround in 2016-17. La Salle finished the campaign with 17 victories - 12 more than the previous season.
 
As the guards coach, Caldwell guided two Explorers to conference honors, including league scoring leader Amy Griffin to the Atlantic 10 All-Conference First Team and Jasmine Alston to the A-10 All-Defensive Team. Additionally, Griffin led the Philadelphia Big 5 in scoring and was a Philadelphia All-Big 5 First Team honoree in 2017. Also under Caldwell’s guidance, Adreana Miller led the Big 5 in free throw percentage.
 
Caldwell worked in implementing team programs and assessing strength and weaknesses for each student-athlete. Additionally, she served as the coach liaison between academic services, compliance, marketing, equipment and facilities.
 
In 2015-16, Caldwell served as the director of operations at La Salle. She was responsible for managing the team’s business affairs, coordinating travel and practice times as well as organizing and managing the team budget.
 
In her two seasons, Caldwell helped guide Amy Griffin to the Atlantic 10 scoring title (17.7 points per game) and a third team Atlantic 10 All-Conference selection last season. Meanwhile, Micahya Owens averaged 13.4 points per game last season and became the 24th Explorer to score 1,000 career points under the tutelage of Caldwell.
 
Caldwell joined the Explorers in 2015 after spending the previous two summers as the head camp counselor for various women’s basketball camps in the Charlotte area. As head camp counselor, Caldwell designed training activities and led group activities for camp participants.
 
After a decorated career as a guard at West Virginia, Caldwell played professionally for FIBA’s Sepsi SIC in Romania. The Charlotte native was a four-year letterwinner for the Mountaineers, scoring 1,246 career points on the way to All-Big East Honorable Mention as a sophomore and All-Big 12 First Team honors as a junior. Caldwell also led WVU to a Big 12 Conference title in 2014, the first regular-season conference title for the Mountaineers since 1992.
 
Caldwell earned a degree in psychology from West Virginia, where she also minored in child development and communications.