Ferguson is proving she is England class
SCHOOLS FOOTBALL
NEWCASTLE schoolgirl Rebecca Ferguson has been being selected for the England Schools’ FA’s under15 girls’ team.
Yet, but for a chance meeting, the talented mdifielder could have been lost to football altogether.
It was as a runner Ferguson first showed promise as a proud member of Gateshead Harriers.
She was so good she finished fourth in the Newcastle Catholic Primary Schools Cross-Country Championships for her school Sacred Heart.
However, her sporting focus was to change when, purely by chance, she took up football.
Paul Brooks from Ponteland United spotted Ferguson kicking a ball about at her brother’s training sessions in 2014.
He approached her and asked if she fancied playing in a friendly for a new girls’ team he had formed and that was the start of her grassroots football career.
Ferguson also played alongside her brother Joe in the Catholic Schools Cup, where her primary school went on to win the Bishop Cunningham Cup.
She was in year five at the time and played in defence but the following year operated in midfield where she plays to this day - for the Sacred Heart team which finished runners-up in the Newcastle Catholic Schools Tournament.
After she had played for Ponteland for six months, Brooks put Ferguson’s name forward for the Sunderland RTC trials, where she was successful.
In 2016, Ferguson moved to St Mary’s High School where she won the Newcastle, Northumberland and Northern Schools’ five-a-side competitions before winning the plate event at the National Finals.
A year later she was the captain of the Saints’ team which won the Under-13 Newcastle City Cup.
After playing for the Newcastle schoolgirls’ team for the past two seasons and leading Newcastle to the Ken Peddieson Inter-Association Cup for the first time in their history, Ferguson became part of the Northumberland squad - where she took on the captain’s role.
North coach Paul Corney put her name forward for the ESFA under15 trials, where she was up against the most talented girls in the country.
Nevertheless, she came through the first test to represent the North against other areas of the country.
After this she gained a place in the 18-girl England squad.
Ferguson will be joined in the party by fellow Northumbrians Ella Wilson (Cramlington LV) and Georgina Spraggon (John Spence) plus from Durham by Rebecca Bell (Chester-le-Street, Washington and Derwentside SFA).
During February half-term the quartet will attend a training camp in Holland.
At Easter the squad travels to Salou in Spain to participate in the Bob Docherty Trophy against Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Wales.