Kicking footballs, always fun, became his focus. That summer, too young to drive, he would hound his elder sister Dana to take him to the field.
"The deal was, he would kick field goals while I lay on a towel, between the goal posts, getting a tan," said Dana, now a junior at Towson University. "If Nick's kick was good, I'd raise my arms."
Usually, after 90 minutes or so, she threw in the towel.
"I'd leave and go to Starbucks for a drink," Dana said. "When I'd get back, Nick would still be kicking."
Sometimes he'd kick after sundown, dragging his parents along to the unlit field where they shagged balls for their son in the end zone, groping for them in the dark.
Ferrara enrolled at St. Anthony's in South Huntington, N.Y., a rigorous Catholic high school with a strong football program.
"Michael had suggested I go there," he said. "He said it would be good for me."
As a freshman, he kicked a 50-yard field goal and, playing wide receiver, scored a touchdown on a 70-yard reverse. Racing into the end zone, Ferrara raised one finger skyward, as if showboating. His coaches were livid until he explained: "I did it for Michael. I owed him something for pointing me in the right direction."
Pushed to the hilt at St. Anthony's, Ferrara blossomed as a kicker, earning All-State honors and a scholarship to Maryland. The Terps liked his strength of character, as well as that of his leg.
"Nick has deep core values and a real respect for others," said Dave Sollazzo, the Terps' recruiting coordinator and defensive line coach. "That matters to him."
Like continuing to pay tribute to his friend.
"Last winter, going to class in all that snow, I went real slow, to protect my kicking leg. I walked like a penguin. I waddled," he said.
"And I thought, Michael would have liked that."
