APRIL FRIDAY 4
6 p.m. Pacific Moraga, Calif.
Just outside of San Francisco, USC wraps up its sixth win of the spring, an 18-4 victory over St. Mary’s. Coach Lindsey Munday hired Wills, her U.S. teammate, and Hilary Bowen, her former Northwestern teammate, after being named the Trojans’ first coach in 2011. Wills is the defensive coordinator, and with a solid performance in tow, she heads to the airport carrying, among other things, a care package from some USC players. It includes a makeshift headdress from a local CVS store that lights up green, the Lizards’ color. On the other side of the country, the Lizards are an hour into their first training camp session of 2014. Wills isn’t the only one missing. It’s not uncommon for MLL players to miss practice during the week, even during the season,
because of full-time job commitments. But she’s eager to join the fray.
9:30 p.m. Oakland International Airport
Wills catches a 9:30 p.m. Pacific flight scheduled to land Saturday at 5:30 a.m. Eastern at New York’s Kennedy Airport. She told the USC players before she left she would see them Sunday morning. She’ll be back in a blink. The Women of Troy play Sunday at Cal in another Mountain Pacific Sports Federation matchup.
APRIL SATURDAY 5
5:30 a.m. Eastern Kennedy Airport New York, N.Y.
Wheels down. Wills arrives in New
York, about four hours before the Lizards’ Saturday morning session at Centereach (N.Y.) High. She hops in a rental car and drives about an hour northeast.
54 LACROSSE MAGAZINE June 2014>> 9:20 a.m.
Centereach, N.Y. In the Centereach parking lot, Wills
sits in the bed of a red pickup truck. Players arrive in bunches. Some are veterans, locks to make the team. Others, like Wills, are on the outside looking in. Al Maione, one of the Lizards’ owners, stands nearby as Wills tapes her ankles and equipment. With just 10 minutes before the first whistle blows, there’s not much time for introductions.
9:30 a.m. Centereach, N.Y.
The training camp session — the second of three held by the Lizards over the weekend — commences with temperatures in the 50s and a variable wind that makes it feel cooler. Wearing a white helmet, a black-and- white Lizards reversible No. 13 pinnie, and a pair of red, white and blue gloves advertising her time as the two-time
World Cup winning goalie with Team USA, Wills trots to the far end of the field for warm-up shots. Drew Adams, New York’s incumbent goalie and a two-time MLL All-Star, former Duke and Stony Brook goalie Sean Brady, and Adams’ good friend Chris Madalon, a former North Carolina goalie, join her. If there’s one apparent difference among them, it’s height. Madalon is 6-foot-3. Adams and Brady are 6-foot. Wills is 5-foot-9. Steve Duffy, New York’s first-year defensive coordinator and the former head coach of the Boston Cannons, watches as the four goalies convene in front of the goal on the south end. They break, deploy to four corners of a half-field and toss long passes around the perimeter. Wills’ stick has black shooting strings with lime-green accents.
A Publication of US Lacrosse
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