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One passion Natalie Wills cultivated from childhood was a love for animals. She grew up at her family’s home on Kent Island with dogs, most recently adopting a golden retriever named Sunny.
“She always loved animals,” Florence “Bucky” Wills said of her daughter. “Her favorite thing to do was to go to the aquarium or go to the zoo, and my older daughter would say, ‘Do we have to go to the zoo again?’ And we would say, ‘Yes, we’re going to the zoo again.’”
Natalie was also devoted to lacrosse, becoming a star goalkeeper at St. Mary’s and then Vanderbilt before coaching at Boston University, Maryland and McDonogh. She was coaching the goalies and the defense for the Eagles in Owings Mills until she died Friday from breast cancer at the Sydney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She was 36.
Liz Robertshaw, who gave Natalie her first assistant coaching position with the Terriers, said her positivity will be missed.
“You’re sharing something about your life, and she was excited for you. She was like, ‘Yes, that’s amazing,’” said Robertshaw, now executive director of the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association. “[The cancer diagnosis] was hard, but at the same time, I think it inspires you to want to do that for other people. How can you amplify other people’s happiness? Because that’s what Natalie did for all of us.”
Natalie played soccer, softball and lacrosse before concentrating on lacrosse as a sixth grader. She played attack until her youth team needed a goalie.
“The coach said, ‘All right, who wants to play goalie tonight?’” recalled her father Jim Wills. “She raised her hand, and that was it. She loved it so much the minute she played that she never wanted to go back to playing in the field.”
As she wrapped up a standout career at St. Mary’s, Natalie’s college destinations boiled down to the Terps and the Commodores. She chose the latter, among other reasons, based on a promise she made to her parents.
“She said, ‘I’m going to make sure you never have to pay one penny of tuition for college,’ and that’s what she did,” her father said. “We spent more money on Southwest Airlines to fly around the country to watch her play for Vanderbilt than we paid for tuition at Vanderbilt.”
Robertshaw hired Natalie after she graduated from Vanderbilt in 2012. Despite Natalie’s lack of coaching experience, Robertshaw said she targeted Natalie as an assistant coach.
“She just had this brightness, this light that you wanted to be around her,” she said. “And if you weren’t doing well, she’d come over, and she just said, ‘Hey, buddy, you got this. Relax, shake it off, let’s get the next one. Let’s go.’ And I think that’s just so huge in coaching.”
In 2015, Natalie coached the goalkeepers at Maryland, which captured its 12th NCAA championship. After that season, she began working at USA Lacrosse and helped launch the organization’s National Team Development Program in 2019.
Skip Lichtfuss, a National Lacrosse Hall of Fame inductee who was USA Lacrosse’s director of national teams at the time, said Natalie was the perfect person to lead that development.
“She did a great job of managing the process, making sure we had the proper support folks and all of the details were in line as far as off the field, on the field, you name it,” he said. “She had a good hand in hiring other coaching staffs that we brought in. She basically was the one that was the face of that program from 2019 until she stepped away from it.”
On Father’s Day in 2022, Natalie found a lump in her right breast, according to her father. On July 1, she was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer, but underwent surgery, 20 weeks of chemotherapy and seven more weeks of radiation before being declared cancer-free from June 2023 until March 2024.
The disease returned as stage 4 metastatic breast cancer and caused lesions to spread throughout her body. Even in her weakened state, though, Natalie insisted on attending McDonogh’s prom picture night on June 2 and a team dinner the next night.
“The next day, she couldn’t breathe, and we called 911, and she spent the next 22 days in the hospital, and we had to take her off life support,” her mother said.
Robertshaw said she has too many memories of Natalie to single out. She said just thinking about some of the costumes Natalie wore for Halloween and Christmas parties makes her smile.
“It’s crazy to think that she is no longer here, but at the same time, I have just such core, vivid, happy memories with her,” she said. “I can think of her and be happy rather than just crying.”
In addition to her parents, Natalie is survived by her sister Laura of Annapolis.
Visitation will be held Monday from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. at Fellows Helfenbein and Newnam Funeral Home in Chester. A celebration of life and Mass will take place Tuesday at 10 a.m. at St. Christopher’s Catholic Church in Chester with interment immediately following at Stevensville Cemetery.
Attendees are asked to wear a touch of color, per Natalie’s request.
Have a news tip? Contact Edward Lee at [email protected], 410-332-6200 and x.com/EdwardLeeSun.
Natalie Wills, who played goalkeeper at St. Mary’s and was an assistant coach at Maryland in 2014-15, died June 26 after battling stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. She was 36. Wills was first diagnosed in 2022. She underwent surgery to remove a lump and began treatment that proved effective that year. But the cancer returned and spread to her bones, lungs and brain. Wills was most recently an assistant coach with the McDonogh girls lacrosse program. (Handout) Natalie Wills, who played goalkeeper at St. Mary’s and was an assistant coach at Maryland in 2014-15, died June 26 after battling stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. She was 36. Wills was first diagnosed in 2022. She underwent surgery to remove a lump and began treatment that proved effective that year. But the cancer returned and spread to her bones, lungs and brain. Wills was most recently an assistant coach with the McDonogh girls lacrosse program. (Handout) Show Caption1 of 3Natalie Wills, who played goalkeeper at St. Mary’s and was an assistant coach at Maryland in 2014-15, died June 26 after battling stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. She was 36. Wills was first diagnosed in 2022. She underwent surgery to remove a lump and began treatment that proved effective that year. But the cancer returned and spread to her bones, lungs and brain. Wills was most recently an assistant coach with the McDonogh girls lacrosse program. (Handout)Expand
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“She always loved animals,” Florence “Bucky” Wills said of her daughter. “Her favorite thing to do was to go to the aquarium or go to the zoo, and my older daughter would say, ‘Do we have to go to the zoo again?’ And we would say, ‘Yes, we’re going to the zoo again.’”
Natalie was also devoted to lacrosse, becoming a star goalkeeper at St. Mary’s and then Vanderbilt before coaching at Boston University, Maryland and McDonogh. She was coaching the goalies and the defense for the Eagles in Owings Mills until she died Friday from breast cancer at the Sydney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She was 36.
Liz Robertshaw, who gave Natalie her first assistant coaching position with the Terriers, said her positivity will be missed.
“You’re sharing something about your life, and she was excited for you. She was like, ‘Yes, that’s amazing,’” said Robertshaw, now executive director of the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association. “[The cancer diagnosis] was hard, but at the same time, I think it inspires you to want to do that for other people. How can you amplify other people’s happiness? Because that’s what Natalie did for all of us.”
Natalie played soccer, softball and lacrosse before concentrating on lacrosse as a sixth grader. She played attack until her youth team needed a goalie.
“The coach said, ‘All right, who wants to play goalie tonight?’” recalled her father Jim Wills. “She raised her hand, and that was it. She loved it so much the minute she played that she never wanted to go back to playing in the field.”
As she wrapped up a standout career at St. Mary’s, Natalie’s college destinations boiled down to the Terps and the Commodores. She chose the latter, among other reasons, based on a promise she made to her parents.
“She said, ‘I’m going to make sure you never have to pay one penny of tuition for college,’ and that’s what she did,” her father said. “We spent more money on Southwest Airlines to fly around the country to watch her play for Vanderbilt than we paid for tuition at Vanderbilt.”
Robertshaw hired Natalie after she graduated from Vanderbilt in 2012. Despite Natalie’s lack of coaching experience, Robertshaw said she targeted Natalie as an assistant coach.
“She just had this brightness, this light that you wanted to be around her,” she said. “And if you weren’t doing well, she’d come over, and she just said, ‘Hey, buddy, you got this. Relax, shake it off, let’s get the next one. Let’s go.’ And I think that’s just so huge in coaching.”
In 2015, Natalie coached the goalkeepers at Maryland, which captured its 12th NCAA championship. After that season, she began working at USA Lacrosse and helped launch the organization’s National Team Development Program in 2019.
Skip Lichtfuss, a National Lacrosse Hall of Fame inductee who was USA Lacrosse’s director of national teams at the time, said Natalie was the perfect person to lead that development.
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“She did a great job of managing the process, making sure we had the proper support folks and all of the details were in line as far as off the field, on the field, you name it,” he said. “She had a good hand in hiring other coaching staffs that we brought in. She basically was the one that was the face of that program from 2019 until she stepped away from it.”
On Father’s Day in 2022, Natalie found a lump in her right breast, according to her father. On July 1, she was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer, but underwent surgery, 20 weeks of chemotherapy and seven more weeks of radiation before being declared cancer-free from June 2023 until March 2024.
The disease returned as stage 4 metastatic breast cancer and caused lesions to spread throughout her body. Even in her weakened state, though, Natalie insisted on attending McDonogh’s prom picture night on June 2 and a team dinner the next night.
“The next day, she couldn’t breathe, and we called 911, and she spent the next 22 days in the hospital, and we had to take her off life support,” her mother said.
Robertshaw said she has too many memories of Natalie to single out. She said just thinking about some of the costumes Natalie wore for Halloween and Christmas parties makes her smile.
“It’s crazy to think that she is no longer here, but at the same time, I have just such core, vivid, happy memories with her,” she said. “I can think of her and be happy rather than just crying.”
In addition to her parents, Natalie is survived by her sister Laura of Annapolis.
Visitation will be held Monday from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. at Fellows Helfenbein and Newnam Funeral Home in Chester. A celebration of life and Mass will take place Tuesday at 10 a.m. at St. Christopher’s Catholic Church in Chester with interment immediately following at Stevensville Cemetery.
Attendees are asked to wear a touch of color, per Natalie’s request.
Have a news tip? Contact Edward Lee at [email protected], 410-332-6200 and x.com/EdwardLeeSun.
Natalie Wills, who played goalkeeper at St. Mary’s and was an assistant coach at Maryland in 2014-15, died June 26 after battling stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. She was 36. Wills was first diagnosed in 2022. She underwent surgery to remove a lump and began treatment that proved effective that year. But the cancer returned and spread to her bones, lungs and brain. Wills was most recently an assistant coach with the McDonogh girls lacrosse program. (Handout) Natalie Wills, who played goalkeeper at St. Mary’s and was an assistant coach at Maryland in 2014-15, died June 26 after battling stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. She was 36. Wills was first diagnosed in 2022. She underwent surgery to remove a lump and began treatment that proved effective that year. But the cancer returned and spread to her bones, lungs and brain. Wills was most recently an assistant coach with the McDonogh girls lacrosse program. (Handout) Show Caption1 of 3Natalie Wills, who played goalkeeper at St. Mary’s and was an assistant coach at Maryland in 2014-15, died June 26 after battling stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. She was 36. Wills was first diagnosed in 2022. She underwent surgery to remove a lump and began treatment that proved effective that year. But the cancer returned and spread to her bones, lungs and brain. Wills was most recently an assistant coach with the McDonogh girls lacrosse program. (Handout)Expand
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