{"id":10,"date":"2015-03-13T01:03:33","date_gmt":"2015-03-13T01:03:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/andrewcaplan.wordpress.com\/?p=9"},"modified":"2015-04-17T03:45:16","modified_gmt":"2015-04-17T03:45:16","slug":"coming-to-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digifolio.me\/andrewcaplan\/2015\/03\/13\/coming-to-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Coming to America"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published in The Crow’s Nest March 2015<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s no easy feat adjusting to a new city, let alone a new country. But that is exactly what Laura Ferreira had to do in order to play for USF\u2019s women\u2019s basketball team.<\/p>\n

Ferreira, 19, came to the United States from Portugal in 2014 after being named the best player in her country for two consecutive years and helped the Bulls to their best season in program history.<\/p>\n

Born in Lisboa, Portugal, Ferreira started playing basketball with her sister, Barbara, at 8 years old. Being two years younger than her sister, Ferreira learned the importance of speed and toughness.<\/p>\n

By the time she was 14, she joined the Portuguese national team, competing against other countries\u2019 best players. Less than four years later, Ferreira\u2019s U18 Portuguese team finished ninth place in Division A, the best classification for any women\u2019s team in the country\u2019s history. She averaged 8.4 points per game in eight games and was named the country\u2019s best current Portuguese player.<\/p>\n

\u201cI improved a lot, especially on my physicality,\u201d Ferreira said.<\/p>\n

Being a competitor at heart, Ferreira loves several other sports as well, including soccer, volleyball and swimming. She swam on Portugal\u2019s national team for 11 years while playing basketball until she had to choose between the two.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was always tired,\u201d Ferreira said. \u201cBut I loved both sports; I don\u2019t regret it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2014, while leading her basketball team in points per game, averaging 13.8, the guard\/forward repeated as the country\u2019s best active Portuguese player. According to ESPN.com, Ferreira was rated a five-star athlete and was given a 96 scout grade.<\/p>\n

The young star\u2019s talents quickly gained the attention of USF head coach Jose Fernandez.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were two (international) kids ranked in the top 100, one went to Connecticut and Laura came to here,\u201d Fernandez said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to try and get the best players for our program. It doesn\u2019t matter where they\u2019re from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although she had the option to play professionally overseas, Ferreira wouldn\u2019t have been able to go to college due to time constraints, so she began exploring her options outside Europe.<\/p>\n

When she and her father visited USF, Ferreira was impressed by the school\u2019s atmosphere and how friendly everyone was. So she decided Tampa would be her new home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe facilities are really good,\u201d Ferreira said. \u201cAnd compared to Europe, we don\u2019t have this kind of program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferreira said it was difficult adjusting to her new home in the United States. She missed her family and her mother\u2019s cooking.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the beginning it was a little bit hard,\u201d Ferreira said. \u201cIt\u2019s a completely different world. You have different cultures here, different style of life and you need to adapt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her parents haven\u2019t been able to attend a game at USF and see her play in person yet, but Ferreira said they watch the games on television and will probably attend one next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re really supportive,\u201d Ferreira said. \u201cThey say \u2018Do your best and be happy.\u2019 They don\u2019t know much about basketball, but they\u2019re always there for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently a freshman, Ferreira is majoring in exercise science. She hopes that when her basketball days are over, she can still have a job related to sports, whether it is a strength and conditioning coach or an athletic trainer.<\/p>\n

But until that day comes, Ferreira will continue her college career at USF with dreams of going pro after obtaining her degree. The Bulls (24-6) finished second in the American Athletic Conference during the regular season and will enter the NCAA tournament starting March 20 in hopes of winning a national championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just work hard at practice, out of practice, in the weight room,\u201d Ferreira said. \u201cI eat healthy and never regret anything. At this point I really don\u2019t care about the individual (goals). I just want our team to get to the best spot that we can ever be. I just want us to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(Photo Courtesy of Tim Britt)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published in The Crow’s Nest March 2015 It\u2019s no easy feat adjusting to a new city, let alone a new country. But that is exactly what Laura Ferreira had to do in order to play for USF\u2019s women\u2019s basketball team. Ferreira, 19, came to the United States from Portugal in 2014 after being named the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,18,19],"class_list":{"0":"post-10","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"tag-laura-ferreira","8":"tag-usf","9":"tag-usf-womens-basketball","10":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digifolio.me\/andrewcaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digifolio.me\/andrewcaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digifolio.me\/andrewcaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digifolio.me\/andrewcaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digifolio.me\/andrewcaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/digifolio.me\/andrewcaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155,"href":"https:\/\/digifolio.me\/andrewcaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions\/155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digifolio.me\/andrewcaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digifolio.me\/andrewcaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digifolio.me\/andrewcaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}