[media-credit name=’UW Athletic Communications’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]It has been quite a rough three years for Wisconsin’s junior co-captain and diving extraordinaire Amanda Witte. She has sustained many injuries and set backs, yet still remains positive and cheerful.

Like most scholar-athletes, Witte chose Wisconsin both to concentrate on academics and to improve her diving. Witte also wanted to make a difference.

“I wanted to pick a program that I knew I could help and influence,” she said.

Making a difference didn’t happen overnight for La Grange, Ill., native. Wisconsin lacks a 10-meter tower — her most talented board. Once a week, the Badger divers travel in a van to Milwaukee to practice their talents. It’s a trip that takes up the majority of her day. Most divers would have chosen a school with the luxury of having the board, but Witte doesn’t let it ruin her spirits.

“It would definitely make a huge difference if Wisconsin had a tower,” Witte said. “One day a week practice isn’t enough for how good I want to be on that. But, it also really makes you prepare for it more, knowing [that] I’m going to do it before I get in. I can psych myself up to get ready for dives up there, since they can be dangerous and hard.”

Unfortunately for Witte, she did not get much practice on tower her freshman year.

During that year, Witte fell victim to mononucleosis, crippling her from diving for several crucial months.

“Mono affected me a lot and I did not realize it until I recovered from it,” Witte said. “It really lowered my self-esteem because I couldn’t complete my dives. But I worked through it and I figured things couldn’t get worse.”

But things did get worse. After a season of frustration and recovery, Witte perforated her eardrum after completing a three and one half somersault dive off of the 10-meter tower for the second time in a year.

“It really put a damper on the tower,” Witte said. “It’s my favorite event and now I get a little more nervous up there. But it also helps me fight back to become better and to get over an injury.”

After more months of recovering from another set back, Witte came back to Madison to start her sophomore year with a new dive program and a new head diving coach.

The Wisconsin diving program was in a huge need for a makeover and, with the hiring of Josh Seykora, Witte could finally receive the attention and coaching she came to UW for.

“The coaching change was hard,” Witte said. “All I wanted to do was improve so I could help the team … I figured I owed it to them get through it for the future.”

Witte found that, in the end, Sykora’s hiring could lead her to new heights.

“[Sykora] is really enthusiastic and always encouraging,” she said. “He really likes to get to know you outside the pool as a person, which I think is key in diving since you spend half of your time in line waiting to dive and that is spent talking with your [coach] and corresponding with him to learn from him.”

She quickly began to learn from Sykora and finally had a breakthrough season.

At the 2003 Big Ten Championships, Amanda placed 10th on tower, followed by a stellar NCAA Zone Championships, where she finished seventh in that same event. Witte also received her first Big Ten Diver of the Week award in January after winning all three boards at a meet in Hawaii and breaking Siobhan Kernan’s four year-old record by 16 points.

At the end of that season, Witte’s talents and character were finally recognized when she was named co-captain for the 2004-05 season.

“It’s good to be a captain this year,” she said. “I really like it because it integrates the swimming and diving teams. We need to work on that more since we don’t practice at the same pool; it’s really helpful — communication-wise and getting everyone on the same page. I think it helps to bring the team together, especially at big meets when we spend different hours at the pool.”

Witte’s teammate and co-captain Carly Piper agrees with her.

“I really enjoy being more connected to the diving team,” Piper said. “It’s also really great to work with Amanda. We get along well since we both live together.”

With a boost of confidence from her prior season and her new leadership role, Witte is finally accelerating the Badger diving program to an elite status. After the first meet of the season, Witte was once again recognized as Big Ten Diver of the week after winning the 1-meter and 3-meter events against UW-Milwaukee and UW-Green Bay.

She also had her best winter invitational in Texas this past weekend, placing eighth on tower and 1-meter after a disappointing 20th on 3-meter the first day.

“I had a rough first day [in Texas], but it’s good to know that I came back,” she said. “I’ve been working on my attitude after I have a bad day, trying to come back right away and I thought I really achieved that this meet.”

Piper noted her attitude change after her first day of competition.

“Amanda was very bubbly and happy in Texas,” Piper said. “That is usually how she is: very happy and upbeat.”

With that attitude, Witte’s future is bright and hopeful. She has many goals and outlooks for the upcoming future.

“Ultimately I want to make it to NCAAs,” Witte said. “It’s going to be hard this year, because there are not many spots available for our zone.”

Last year at the NCAA Championships, the Zone C representatives — a mix of schools from the Midwest — fared poorly. As a result, the NCAA has fewer qualifying spots for Zone divers at the championship meet.

“I’m just going to go in with everything I have,” Witte said. “We’ll see how I do.”

With a positive attitude and a heart as big as Witte’s, the future looks nothing but bright.