Listen up: Wisniewski has a good story

Listening to Elissa Wisniewski isn't such a chore anymore, and that's, well, great to hear.

That's because she has good stories to tell. So good, in fact, that you don't even recognize the scratchy sound of her voice she claims to have.

Like how about this story? Wisniewski says when she's coaching third base for her Stevenson JV softball team, her voice will sometimes fail her in mid-sentence.

"The girls think it's funny when they hear my voice crack," she said.

Here's another story, which isn't so funny. When Wisniewski lost her voice about this time four years ago, a doctor, after checking her out, didn't believe her.

She says after the doc failed to find any reason on earth why the former Stevenson star pitcher and Winona State University student-athlete suddenly could not speak, the conclusion was that she surely must be suppressing something awful, that at some point in her life, Wisniewski was traumatized.

Wisniewski was speechless, so to speak.

"I said to my mom, 'I swear to God, nothing (traumatic) happened,' " said Wisniewski, whose voice was reduced to barely more than a whisper.

Two unsuccessful surgeries to repair her voice box later, Wisniewski went to the famed Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., which is about a 45-minute drive from Winona State.

"The first appointment, the doctor said, 'Oh, it's scar tissue on the vocal chord,' " Wisniewski said. "Two (more) surgeries later, I could talk again.

"The reason (the doctors) couldn't find (the scar tissue) before was because it was on the back of my vocal chords and they never picked them up to look at them."

If her young Stevenson players are smart, they'll listen with ears perked to Wisniewski, who came back to her high school alma mater last year to serve as a volunteer JV coach under Deanna Warkins. Wisniewski is the JV's head coach this spring.

"For what it's worth, I've never coached or covered a kid with more heart and desire than her," said the Daily Herald's John Radtke, who serves as our Fox bureau sports coordinator and also coaches the Northern Illinois Lightning, Wisniewski's summer travel team most of this decade.

"She's been with me five years now and it amazes me the things she's overcome to still compete at a high level. Most of the kids I coach quit playing summer ball by the time they're done with college, but Wiz and Jaci Corn, now the JV coach at St. Edward, have remained playing at a high level even two years removed from college ball -- and they've continued to do so at a high level."

Few softball pitchers in this state enjoyed a more illustrious high school career than Wisniewski. When she graduated from Stevenson in 2002, after a four-year career that included helping lead the Patriots downstate as a freshman, her 99 wins ranked first all-time in Class AA, according to IHSA records.

In 799 innings, she struck out 1,016 batters. During her senior season she set school marks for strikeouts (315), ERA (0.16), shutouts (17) and innings pitched (221).

Her success didn't stop at Winona State, where she graduated in 2006 with a degree in business administration. She played four years of Division II softball, helping the Warriors win a pair of Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference championships.

In early spring of 2004, with her sophomore season about to get busy, she got sick and lost her voice.

It was no big deal, really, because every spring she got sick and lost her voice.

"It was a thing that always happened in the spring," Wisniewski said. "I'd just lose my voice for a week. So I thought this was it again."

This time, it was more serious.

For the next year and a half, she and her doctors went searching for her voice.

It would have been easier to find one of her contact lenses in a dirt-filled infield.

"In the spring, I have real bad allergies to mold," Wisniewski said. "As far back as I can remember, I would lose my voice in the spring when all this stuff starts growing again. That's how I would know it was spring."

She underwent her first surgery (exploratory) in the summer of 2004, meaning she couldn't pitch for Radtke's Lightning team, and that was tough for her.

Meanwhile, the search for her voice continued. One doctor gave her truth serum, she says, to find out what really transpired in her life to cause her voice to vanish.

The truth serum put her almost in a trance.

"You have no idea what's going on," Wisniewski said. "I couldn't remember the next two days."

She saw a videotape of the session. And what did she reveal?

"I was talking about our spring trip to Florida, when we went 10-0," Wisniewski said.

The summer before her senior year, she had her last surgery.

She says her right vocal chord is still paralyzed because the scar tissue grew back on it.

"So I actually have only one vocal chord that works," she said. "Anytime I do any screaming, or if it's late at night, or if I get stressed, I'll start to lose my voice."

So what actually caused her to lose her voice? Wisniewski says it was a combination of the stress and strain her voice endured every spring. Of course, all that screaming in softball probably didn't help. Plus, she adds, when her sinuses would get clogged up, all the fluids would drain into her throat.

Funny thing is, she kept pitching softballs. And kept winning on the field.

In September of 2006, she had surgery to repair a partially torn rotator cuff. She's still doing physical therapy for the wounded shoulder, and still hoping to pitch.

"I always say about Wiz that I've never been around an athlete who typifies the word 'gamer' more than her," Radtke said.

When she isn't coaching Stevenson's JV softball team, Wisniewski works in the claims department for a packaging company called Pactive, which is headquartered in Lake Forest.

After talking to me on the phone for a good half hour, she insisted her voice wasn't hurting. She sounded "normal," really.

"My old voice was a lot smoother and higher pitched," she said.

Her new voice is richer.