St. Laurence’s Woltman speaks up, finds voice

Ella Woltman was not even 10 years old when she first approached a microphone in front of an audience.

She was invited to sing One Republic’s “Counting Stars” for the cover band Reckless, which featured her father, Matthew. She enjoyed the experience quite a bit. “I will admit, I was quite the diva,” she said. “I tried to steal the microphone away from the lead singer.”

That began a love affair with public speaking.

The freshman volleyball player has yet to step onto the court this season for St. Laurence because the Illinois High School Association moved volleyball, football and boys soccer to the spring due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Oak Lawn resident, however, has been trying to do her part vocally to bring back those sports. She showed passion, a flair for the dramatic and even a little humor as she was spoke at three rallies and one press conference in a span of five days.

Woltman talked about the importance of the return of fall sports and in-person learning. St. Laurence is on a hybrid system, so she served as a voice for public school students whowere 100% remote.

Fractions of her speeches popped up on TV and radio broadcasts. Her debut came Sept. 17 at Crescent Park in Orland Park. She had more than 300 people wildly cheering.

“Volleyball is not a contact sport,” she told the crowd. “But it was all taken away. Why? Because of safety. What’s really happening is the crippling of students and studentathletes’ positive and normal emotional well-being.”

She later shouted, “Why are we scared? We are a nation of the people. The politicians work for us. We are playing this fall."

Woltman had the crowd in the palm of her hand.

She took the liberty of having members of the crowd shout, “We demand.” When they obliged, she smiled and said, “All right, good. I just wanted to make sure that works.”

When Woltman finished her five-minute speech, Frankfort native and rally moderator Dave Ruggles said, “If I knew it was going to go that way, I would have done a mic drop and walked off.”

Woltman said she approached Ruggles after a rally in McCook.

“He sent amessage on a Wednesday and I spoke on Thursday,” she said.

Ruggles, who hasn’t always been as kind during his own presentations, liked what he heard from Woltman.

“I felt her story was compelling because

she was acting selflessly on behalf for others,” he said. “The rest is history with that kid. Incredibly passionate, incredibly intelligent and an assassin not unlike me when it comes to eviscerating the people who are leading us off the cliff in this state.”

Woltman has receivedcriticism, but she said not too much.

“I’ve gotten quite a bit of recognition from my family and my teammates and people at school,” she said. “Sadly, I have gotten two things of backlash.

They decided to tell me I was killing people. I don’t get that. I don’t think what I was supporting could kill people.”

At this point in her high school career, Woltman is eyeing either a future in volleyball, working as a dietitian, a career in law, or after some of her speeches, politics.

“I’ve been getting a lot of comments asking when I’m running for office,” she said. “People said they will vote for me. Things really get tomy head, so I’ll be like, ‘Huh, maybe I’ll be a good governor or a member of the House of Representatives.’”