July 30, 2025
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Ella Langellier finds self, new passion on road to injury recovery

The 2025 Bishop McNamara graduate to play soccer, practice photography at Olivet

By Mason Schweizer
Ella Langellier, a 2025 Bishop McNamara graduate, found a passion for photography while an injury sidelined her junior year on the Fightin' Irish soccer team. Now, Langellier is set to play on the women’s soccer team and study communications and photography at Olivet Nazarene University this fall.

Ella Langellier, a 2025 Bishop McNamara graduate, found a passion for photography while an injury sidelined her junior year on the Fightin' Irish soccer team. Now, Langellier is set to play on the women’s soccer team and study communications and photography at Olivet Nazarene University this fall. (Tiffany Blanchette)

In love with soccer since the moment she first played when she was seven, Ella Langellier was a seasoned soccer veteran when she joined the Bishop McNamara varsity team as a freshman in 2022 and quickly broke out as one of the area’s best by the end of her sophomore season.

But just two days before the first day of practice her junior season, a torn ACL took away the sport she loved and used to identify herself.

What initially seemed like an affliction wound up as a blessing for Langellier. While she recovered, she not only found herself, but also a love of photography before healing in time to finish her senior year back on the pitch. Now, she’ll be doing both as a women’s soccer player and communications major at Olivet Nazarene University.

“I love doing it and once I started, kind of like soccer, I got addicted,” Langellier said. “Every chance I got, I wanted more experience, so I’d follow [photographers] around and see what they were doing that day. Whatever sport it was, I just tried it out.”

A midfielder and forward by trade, Langellier played everywhere from goalkeeper to striker during her Daily Journal All-Area, Illinois High School Soccer Coaches Association All-Sectional and All-Metro Suburban Conference 2023 sophomore season that included 16 goals and 12 assists. The Fightin’ Irish went 11-6 that spring and earned the program’s first All-City championship.

“I had a lot of help from my teammates, but it was my way of expressing myself at the time,” Langellier said. “I wasn’t going through my best period with some stuff in my personal life going on, and I would just sell out on the field. It worked out I think.”

After finishing her second varsity basketball season, Langellier had a weekend off from McNamara athletics before starting her junior soccer season. She decided to spend that free weekend playing with her club team in Indianapolis.

That’s when it happened. She tore her right ACL and meniscus, taking away arguably her most valuable college recruiting season and the thing she loved most.

“For some people, it tears them apart, but I told myself and made it a point that I know this is hard on people, so I’m gonna find ways to cope, find ways to keep myself busy and find ways to be a good teammate, even though I can’t play,” Langellier said.

Bishop McNamara's Ella Langellier, right, makes a pass as Kankakee's Elizabeth Avalos defends during an All-City game Saturday, March 22, 2025.

Bishop McNamara's Ella Langellier, right, makes a pass as Kankakee's Elizabeth Avalos defends during an All-City game at McNamara in March. (Mason Schweizer)

Her mom had an old camera, and she was taking sports media class at McNamara, so she decided to take what she was learning and serve as her team’s photographer. Soon, members of the school’s softball team saw her work and asked her to take photos for them as well, as did athletes from other area schools.

Most importantly, she found herself, a potential future and a feeling comparable to scoring a goal.

“Sports photography in particular, you have to get the picture in the moment,” Langellier said. “The focus has to be right, you have to have the right settings, the right angle and it all has to piece together to get it working. Getting that shot is similar to scoring a goal, because it all just comes together and works.”

Photography for local student-athletes became her second soccer-related job after she began officiating youth leagues earlier in high school. It’s also a job she kept as she returned to the pitch this year, scoring 13 goals and cementing her commitment to Olivet. While she wasn’t playing, she could be found at a local sporting events, taking photos for dozens of local athletes across several sports.

Her new coach, Bill Bahr, is no stranger to seeing young women find themselves during perhaps the most progressive time of their lives. Unfortunately, he’s also seen young athletes lose their identities when injuries take away the sport they’ve always lived through.

“Sports become an identity for people, and when that gets pulled by not your own choice, it forces you inward,” Bahr said. “Either you really struggle and are depressed or you overcome that darkness and lost feeling, start realizing this is who God made me to be, this is who I am or this is my passion. In Ella’s case, she wanted to figure out a way to help the team, be part of the team and be around the game while not in the game.”

She’ll never get that soccer season back, a catastrophic realization at the time, but one that’s already subsided quite a bit. And with what she learned about herself during that time away, Langellier is more than content with where her young life has taken her.

“I was definitely making lemonade out of lemons and everything happens for a reason,” Langellier said. “I don’t wish tearing an ACL on anyone, but I would tear it again in a heartbeat if it meant what I received and learned about myself during that time period.

“I learned so much about myself and am definitely stronger physically and mentally. I made so many connections during that time and it was probably good to take a break and learn who I am outside of sports.”