ONE MORE TIME
Michigan recruit White leads way as Mother McAuley looks to defend its Class 4A state championship
Ellie White has never lacked confidence.
She’s super good, she knows it, and during her first three years at Mother McAuley she has delivered in extremely impressive fashion. But we haven’t seen it all.
The Michigan recruit is striving to find another layer of talent.
Complacent? Not Ellie White. “I always have potential,” she said. “I’m always fighting to get better. It’s just the grit and competitiveness in me.
“Maybe I’m at the best right now, but I still know I can get better. I know that my coaches will push me to get better.”
White, a 5-foot-11 outside hitter, is looking to add this season to her McAuley legacy, which has been filled with state medals and individual awards.
In 2022 she was the Daily Southtown Girls Volleyball Player of the Year. She was also Gatorade’s Illinois Player of the Year.
She’ll be the first to say she had plenty of help. But White was very much a leader on the floor as the Mighty Macs finished as the state runner-up in 2021 and won the Class 4A state championship in 2022.
Being a senior leader is a new role she’s already relishing.
“Since freshman year, I’ve looked up to the seniors,” White said. “Some of them are my best friends. Now that I’m a senior, I think I can step into those roles just like they did.
“I’m not nervous. It’s something great to walk into. I’m just excited to be a role model for others.”
White’s achievements as a player at McAuley have come mostly as a hitter. The fact is, however, that she’s an excellent setter. She will likely be a setter at Michigan.
When White came to McAuley, coach Jen DeJarld saw her abilities as a hitter and used her extensively on the right side. White responded with 118 kills during the shortened 2020 season.
Since then she has been a force as an outside. Over the past two seasons she has put down an astounding 1,110 kills.
But her contributions go well beyond a powerful right arm.
“Honestly, when I watch her do anything, she just is so graceful,” DeJarld said. “She just makes every skill look so easy. I always have her demonstrate plays, not only for my young campers in the summer but every day at practice.
“In the past, I’ve always referred to her as that 1 percent kind of player. She picks things up so easily. I could throw her in to set tomorrow in a match, without her having set one of our hitters, and she would be absolutely fluid with it.”
And happy to do so.
“Yes, she can adapt to anything with an open mind and an open heart,” DeJarld said.
“She comes in with no bravado, no ego. Of all the things she has accomplished, you’d never know it. She’s just one of the gang at practice.
“Now she is really stepping up vocally. She is filling the role nicely that Gigi Navarrete demonstrated as a leader. And while she isn’t going to have the effervescence like Gigi had with her on-court emotions, she’s definitely the one talking the most in the gym and leading by example.
“You just see it in the eyes of all of her beholders — how much they revere her.”
Senior middle hitter Ellery Rees can attest to that.
“Ellie is just someone you always want to strive to be like,” Rees said. “She is super supportive to her teammates. She’s super humble. She’s a great role model for the younger players on the team.
“I’ve known Ellie since grammar school, and she has always been someone I looked up to as a player. Getting to be on the team with her last season was awesome.”
One more time is even better.