Amber Witherspoon has been able to dunk since before high school. The 6-foot-4 center was a three-star basketball recruit when she originally committed to Quentin Hillsman’s Syracuse program in high school. In an SU uniform, she showed ability to score and defend off the bench for the nationally ranked Orange.

But a late summer choice left that all behind, and Witherspoon decided to leave basketball for a reserve spot on the SU volleyball team.

“I just saw myself playing volleyball after college more than basketball,” Witherspoon said.

Witherspoon had a great relationship with Hillsman during the recruiting process, but spoke about how things changed when she arrived at SU. Witherspoon — who also played volleyball in high school — decided to test out basketball for the first year she was at SU, but after the season, realized it wasn’t for her.

Though volleyball head coach Leonid Yelin said he put Witherspoon on scholarship, the sophomore has gotten limited playing time, appearing in only five matches and recording four blocks.

“She’s a great athlete, with not enough skill,” Yelin said. “She convinced us she understood she was behind, she convinced us she was going to work hard, she’s going to do extra to catch up … because we knew what kind of athlete she was, we took a chance … So far, she’s doing good.”

Witherspoon and Hillsman were close during the recruiting process, as Hillsman would call her after almost every game to ask about her about the game and her family. But when she got to SU, she said the relationship between the two felt different. It was more business-oriented, more on-court focused.

Hillsman said the idea of playing both sports was tossed around before her first season, but the seasons overlapped too much, and it wasn’t a viable option. When she approached him about the choice to leave, he said he was supportive of her decision. She had been on scholarship her freshman year, and would have been again in 2015-16, Hillsman said.

Yelin said he wasn’t going to let Witherspoon come play volleyball just because she felt like leaving basketball.

“We don’t even have tryouts,” Yelin said. “I just knew her since she was in high school, so we knew what we were getting.”

While the transition has been tough, Witherspoon said she’s enjoying volleyball. She assured Yelin that her heart was in it and that she would be “in it 100 percent.”

Yelin believes Witherspoon will have an impact on the team in the future, saying with improved blocking and hitting skills he hopes she can be a middle blocker.

“She needs to learn how to be aggressive,” Yelin said.

As the Orange prepared on the court for its matchup with Virginia Tech, Witherspoon spent her pregame warm-up time on the sideline, working on her hitting skills. She hit the ball off the ground on one bounce before it hit the wall and went back to her. Only one other teammate did the same.

If Witherspoon ever wanted to come back to play basketball, Hillsman said he “would never close the door for her.” Still Witherspoon insists her future is with the Orange volleyball team, even if she hasn’t made an on-court impact yet.

Said Witherspoon, with a laugh: “It’s fun to learn what my body can do besides layup and dunk.”

Published on October 19, 2015 at 10:33 pm

Contact Jack: jfupton@syr.edu