\n\t\t\t\t\t\tOrlando Pride defender Kerry Abello has already built an impressive soccer r\u00e9sum\u00e9.In four seasons with the Pride, she’s become a championship-winning defender and one of the team’s most versatile players. But when her professional soccer career eventually comes to an end, Abello doesn’t want a traditional life-after-soccer storyline. “I want to play soccer for a long time, fingers crossed, and I don’t see myself stopping anytime soon,” Abello said. “But as of right now, my plan is to go to med school when I’m done.”It’s a career path that often surprises people.”So many people look at me sideways when I say I want to go to med school after,” Abello said. “They’re like, ‘Well, how long are you going to play?’ And I’m like, ‘Hopefully well into my 30s.’ But the time will pass anyway, so why not do something I love and have a passion for?”That passion started long before her professional career.Abello has been playing soccer since she was a child, but alongside cleats and soccer balls were toy medical kits and stethoscopes. As she grew older, both interests only became stronger.At Penn State, she balanced the demands of Division I soccer with a rigorous science course load and lab work.”I would literally have morning workout, go to all my classes, have training, and then sometimes go to the lab at like 10 p.m. to finish my lab work before the end of the day,” Abello said.In fact, medical school was originally the next step after college.But everything changed when the Orlando Pride selected her in the 2021 NWSL Draft.”It became very clear to me right after I got to Orlando that I wanted to do this for a long time,” Abello said. “This was still a really big dream of mine that I wanted to chase, and it was right in front of me. So my thought process was, school can always wait.”While soccer remains her focus, she’s already laying the groundwork for what’s next.Through the Pride’s partnership with Orlando Health, Abello completed an observership at the hospital earlier this year, giving her firsthand exposure to the medical field she’ll eventually pursue.For Abello, the experience reinforced something she’s believed for years: athletes don’t have to be defined by just one passion.”I always felt kind of different,” she said. “Amongst my athletic friends, I was the nerdy one. And amongst my school friends, I was the jock, which was kind of an identity crisis for me. But I think you can do it all.”Today, Kerry Abello is helping anchor the backline of a championship caliber club. Tomorrow, she hopes to be helping save lives.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Orlando Pride defender Kerry Abello has already built an impressive soccer r\u00e9sum\u00e9.<\/p>\n
In four seasons with the Pride, she’s become a championship-winning defender and one of the team’s most versatile players. But when her professional soccer career eventually comes to an end, Abello doesn’t want a traditional life-after-soccer storyline. <\/p>\n
“I want to play soccer for a long time, fingers crossed, and I don’t see myself stopping anytime soon,” Abello said. “But as of right now, my plan is to go to med school when I’m done.”<\/p>\n
It’s a career path that often surprises people.<\/p>\n
“So many people look at me sideways when I say I want to go to med school after,” Abello said. “They’re like, ‘Well, how long are you going to play?’ And I’m like, ‘Hopefully well into my 30s.’ But the time will pass anyway, so why not do something I love and have a passion for?”<\/p>\n
That passion started long before her professional career.<\/p>\n
Abello has been playing soccer since she was a child, but alongside cleats and soccer balls were toy medical kits and stethoscopes. As she grew older, both interests only became stronger.<\/p>\n
At Penn State, she balanced the demands of Division I soccer with a rigorous science course load and lab work.<\/p>\n
“I would literally have morning workout, go to all my classes, have training, and then sometimes go to the lab at like 10 p.m. to finish my lab work before the end of the day,” Abello said.<\/p>\n
In fact, medical school was originally the next step after college.<\/p>\n
But everything changed when the Orlando Pride selected her in the 2021 NWSL Draft.<\/p>\n
“It became very clear to me right after I got to Orlando that I wanted to do this for a long time,” Abello said. “This was still a really big dream of mine that I wanted to chase, and it was right in front of me. So my thought process was, school can always wait.”<\/p>\n
While soccer remains her focus, she’s already laying the groundwork for what’s next.<\/p>\n
Through the Pride’s partnership with Orlando Health, Abello completed an observership at the hospital earlier this year, giving her firsthand exposure to the medical field she’ll eventually pursue.<\/p>\n
For Abello, the experience reinforced something she’s believed for years: athletes don’t have to be defined by just one passion.<\/p>\n
“I always felt kind of different,” she said. “Amongst my athletic friends, I was the nerdy one. And amongst my school friends, I was the jock, which was kind of an identity crisis for me. But I think you can do it all.”<\/p>\n
Today, Kerry Abello is helping anchor the backline of a championship caliber club. <\/p>\n
Tomorrow, she hopes to be helping save lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orlando Pride defender Kerry Abello has already built an impressive soccer r\u00e9sum\u00e9.In four seasons with the Pride, she’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[141601,90769,6906,141602,80296,141605,11848,139,141,6031,140,3968,194,90820,141603,2062,141604,164],"class_list":["post-345651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-abello","tag-cleat","tag-end","tag-lab-work","tag-long-time","tag-med-school","tag-next-step","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-health","tag-orlando-news","tag-orlando-pride","tag-partnership","tag-passion","tag-professional-soccer-career","tag-soccer","tag-toy-medical-kit","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}