Tony Caldwell joined the Florida Southern College baseball staff under head coach Rick O’Dette in July 2024. Caldwell most recently served as the head assistant coach and recruiting coordinator under O’Dette at Saint Leo University from 2021-2024 and was an assistant coach at NCAA Division I Kent State University before his time with the Lions.
 
In his first season at Florida Southern, Caldwell helped FSC to a 38-15-1 overall record, including All-Sunshine State Conference winner Rohsean Riley at third base. A catcher himself during his collegiate career, FSC had Cory Filley named to the All-defensive team, leading the conference in caught stealing. Taking over the program in summer of 2024, the entire coaching staff navigated a large roster, while adding in dozens of transfers. 

While at Saint Leo, Caldwell helped coach the Lions to host NCAA South Region tournaments in 2022 and 2024, both program bests. The Florida native assisted SLU with three straight seasons of 30+ wins, including a top 10 ranking among NCBWA Division II during the 2024 season. Nearly a 20-year drought in NCAA appearances, Caldwell’s time as recruiting coordinator and head assistant coach lifted the Lions to the 2022 and 2024 regional tournaments and saw the program’s only All-American in Bobby Sparling (2022) and Luke Lashutka (2024).
 
Caldwell was a standout catcher at Auburn University where he played for the Tigers from 2008-2011. He was an All-SEC selection as a senior and posted several single-season top-10 records while at Auburn including in home runs, runs scored, RBI, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, at-bats, HBPs, and total plate appearance while finishing with a career .344 batting average. He was a finalist for the Johnny Bench Award in 2011, making him one of the top 13 collegiate catchers that season. He led the SEC with 23 runners caught stealing and was second among the 13 finalists in that category.
 
He was named to the Johnny Bench Award watchlist all four seasons at Auburn and led the nation in caught stealing percentage at 47 percent. He threw out 59 base runners during his time behind the plate which topped the record books at Auburn. He also has the honor of sharing two records with Bo Jackson including hit by pitches and total bases in a single game. His total bases record is 14 while he went 5-for-5 at the plate with three home runs and nine RBI versus Kentucky. He also shares the record for most runs in an SEC Tournament game at Auburn with Hall of Famer Frank Thomas at three. 
 
Caldwell competed for three different collegiate summer league teams throughout his time at Auburn including the Wareham Gateman squad in the prestigious Cape Cod League. In all three summers he was named an All-Star and was the team MVP for two of his three squads.
 
Following a tremendous collegiate career, he was drafted in the 2011 Major League Baseball Draft by the then-named Florida Marlins. Caldwell spent seven years in professional baseball, including three years as part of the Marlins organization.
 
While still competing in the professional ranks, Caldwell began his coaching journey during the offseason of 2014 and his first stop was with the East Alabama Aggies as an assistant coach with the 17U and 18U travel ball team which he coached for two seasons. He then made his way into the collegiate coaching ranks as a graduate assistant for his alma mater Auburn in 2016. After one season with the Tigers, he joined the coaching staff at Kent State where he spent three seasons from 2017-2020. During the summer of 2018, he spent a season coaching the Falmouth Commodores of the Cape Cod Baseball League as a hitting/catching coach.
 
While at Kent State he helped the Golden Flashes capture the 2018 MAC Regular Season Championship while advancing to the NCAA Tournament. He worked with several All-MAC performers, two All-Americans, and helped Tim Dalporto advance to being named a Johnny Bench Award Finalist. In 2018, he helped Kent State secure the 25th-ranked recruiting class according to the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, the first top-25 class in program history.
 
Caldwell graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Auburn University in 2016.