UCF junior forward Morgan Ferrara has a knack for playing musical instruments.
ORLANDO, Fla. — Piano, flute, drums. Name any instrument and chances are Morgan Ferrara can, and has, played it. Her musical talent comes in handy on road trips, entertaining her women's soccer teammates and coaches during team meals.
"I can pretty much play anything I pick up," Ferrara said. "In middle school, I played the trumpet a little bit. I had a little violin phase. I'm lucky that I can pretty much play anything."
The junior first learned to play the piano by watching her father. The first song that she learned was Shania Twain's "You're Still The One."
"Morgan has a really natural gift," Ferrara's father, Skip, said. "She really just plays by ear. I'll figure out a song, and she'll come home and watch me play it. Thirty minutes later, she's playing the same song."
While her dad has played in cover bands and Ferrara credits him for teaching her everything she knows, there's one thing that Morgan has mastered ahead of her father.
"He still can't play the flute, so I've got him on that one," Ferrara laughed.
In second grade, she picked up the flute. To put it in perspective, most students typically begin playing the instrument in junior high.
"I started playing the flute in elementary school band," Ferrara said. "I never let it go. I still play it today in a church band, actually. It was something just different to do besides soccer."
The Tampa, Florida, native realized her passion for music and theatre in fifth grade when she captured the lead role in a school play. With her parents' encouragement, she began her collegiate career as a music major at Mississippi State.
But in the end, her love for soccer trumped her musical passion and she switched to a more athletic career path when she transferred to UCF.
Ferrara will earn her degree in sport and exercise science in December 2017. She's on the pre-med track, with plans to go to graduate school, maybe even med school.
In addition to her musical talent, Ferrara is also gifted academically. With a 3.95 grade-point average in her field, she's been accepted into Honors in the Major, meaning she will have a published thesis before she graduates.
Ferrara has no plans to give up music altogether. She looks at music as a hobby, a stress-reliever. Plus, there is still one instrument that she'd like to learn.
"I've tried the guitar, but I'm not very good," Ferrara admitted.
With her track record, it's probably safe to say that Ferrara will soon master the guitar and eventually be entertaining her fellow med students between classes.
