NaTallia Urlacher, niece of Chicago Bears Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher, commits to St. Mary's basketball
Warren-Rich townships to face off in Illinois basketball playoffs
Friday night is the Class 4A State Semifinals in high school boys basketball. Warren Township will face off against Rich Township. We had both coaches on Good Day, and two alums too!
Athletic stardom runs in the Urlacher family. NaTallia Urlacher is the latest to follow in those footsteps.
Urlacher announced her commitment to St. Mary's women's basketball Wednesday after she helped lead Fremd to a second-place finish in the 2025 Class 4A State Championships. The Gaels are a Division I program located in Moraga, California, and play in the West Coast Conference.
NaTallia is the niece of Chicago Bears Hall of Fame linebacker Brian Urlacher, and also goes by Coco. Urlacher's son, Kennedy, is a safety for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football program.
NaTilla is a senior at Fremd and put together a fantastic senior year. She averaged 13 points, seven rebounds and three steals per game for the Vikings. She was an All-Area Selection by the Chicago Sun-Times.
Urlacher helped Fremd to the state title game with one of the best performances of the IHSA state tournament.
In an 80-74 douvle overtime 4A semifinal win over defending state champion Loyola Academy, Urlacher scored 32 points on 12 of 20 field goals and grabbed 17 total rebounds in 40 minutes on the court. 24 of Urlacher's 32 points came in the second half as Fremd pulled off a miraculous comeback.
Fremd trailed by seven points with 42.3 seconds left in the first overtime before Urlacher nailed two 3-pointers to send the game to a double overtime. Her second three landed with just over two seconds remaining, which was an an incredibly difficult turn-around shot from the top of the key.
It was redemption for Urlacher, too. Fremd lost to Loyola Academy in last year's state semifinals. Urlacher went 0 for 8 shooting from the floor in that game.
Now, Urlacher is heading to California. She had offers from Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, Radford and Eastern Illinois along with St. Mary's.
She'll join a Gaels team that finished 14–16 overall – 10–10 in the WCC – and earned a bit in the 2025 WNIT, facing Texas Southern on March 20.