Whether it was her gymnastics career during grade school or her soccer career at Crown Point, Gianna Witte says her father, Jim, was never too far away.
“He took me to all of my tournaments,” Witte said. “He took me to everything. He was really involved.”
That changed on Oct. 30, 2019, when Jim Witte died at 43.
Suddenly, Gianna Witte was without the person she described as “my No. 1 fan.”
After some admitted struggles in her junior season — her first without her father as a fixture in the crowd — Witte said she believes she’s in a better place as her senior season begins.
“I just realized that it wasn’t going to change,” she said. “I had to try and put my feelings behind me and use it as something for motivation to push myself even more.”
All three Witte kids have extensive athletic backgrounds. Trevor Witte is a 2019 Crown Point graduate who plays soccer at Indiana Northwest, and Mia Witte is a freshman at Crown Point with softball and basketball as her sports.
Gianna Witte was primarily a gymnast growing up but switched to soccer in middle school, citing the physical toll gymnastics was taking on her body. With her mother, Cathy, often shuttling her sister around, Witte said she spent countless hours in the car with her father.
“My mom was usually with my sister, so my dad was always on duty with me,” she said.
That included Witte’s high school transition to soccer.
As a freshman, Witte’s varsity playing time was exclusively on throw-ins because of the distance she generates with her front-flipping toss. By her sophomore year, those acrobatics were secondary to her overall ability as she became the full-time starter at left back — the spot she still occupies.
Witte’s father died just three weeks after that sophomore season ended, however, and she found it difficult to find the same enthusiasm for soccer.
“It was really hard,” she said. “In my first year playing without him, I was sad a lot. I knew I didn’t want to quit, but it was also hard to find the motivation to get out there every day and play.”
Crown Point coach Chris Mikrut said Witte was unable to shrug off the tiniest mistakes.
“She was playing so hard for her dad, and she wanted to be at her best,” Mikrut said. “There were times last year when she struggled with that. But she’s really come a long way. She’s worked on herself to not get so upset and to let those things slide.”
Witte said she spent much of the offseason reflecting on her circumstances and believes she’s found a better mental place.
“It wasn’t that I had a bad attitude,” Witte said. “I was just down all the time. So I wanted to come into this year more positively, which is something that I think I’ve done. And I have a great team behind me, and my coaches have been so supportive.”
That support included a teamwide decision to put the initials “JW” on the right sleeve of the warmup shirts. Witte also has her father in mind whenever her thoughts turn to college.
She plans to play at North Central, a Division III college in Naperville, Illinois, where her father was an All-American football player in the 1990s.
“He was the one who introduced it to me a long time ago,” Witte said. “I’d been there to watch a few football games with him. Then I started talking to the soccer coach there, and the program is amazing. It’s a similar environment to what we have here, and I knew I’d be super comfortable going into it.”
For now, Witte said her focus is on helping the Bulldogs advance beyond the regional, citing their 3-2 loss to Chesterton in double overtime in a Class 3A regional semifinal last season as motivation.
But that’s only part of what’s kept her going.
“Seeing how many people cared about him made me realize that I needed to go out and play for him,” Witte said of her father. “Because he would be so proud of me.”
Dave Melton is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
