A talented Ysgol Bro Pedr footballer has enjoyed a stand-out season.

Year 10 pupil Casi Gregson, from Lampeter, represented Ceredigion Schools and also travelled to Florida, Israel, Portugal and the Netherlands with the Cymru Women’s Under 17s national team despite being only 15 years old.

Her interest in football began at Ysgol Gynradd Carreg Hirfaen and thanks to her mother Maxine’s influence a mixed team was established in Lampeter to compete in the Ceredigion Under 12 league.

As a result of her eye-catching performances Casi was given the opportunity to attend West Wales trials where she came to the attention of the national selectors for the first time.

It is not surprising that she has developed into such a promising footballer as her father Lyndon is a former Swansea City professional.

The women’s game in Wales has developed at a rapid rate in recent years following the success of the national women’s team under the leadership of Gemma Grainger and as part of the vision for developing the girls’ game an FAW Trust South Wales Girls Academy was established in Pontypridd for the most talented players.

Casi and her parents make the trip from Lampeter to Pontypridd three times a week on Wednesday and Friday for practice and on Sunday for academy games where the team competes against academies of boys two years younger.

The coaches are very experienced and include Izzy Taylor, former Cardiff Met Women’s coach and Loran Dykes MBE the former Welsh international.

Taylor said of Casi: “She has a good first touch, a presence and determination on the pitch, she is exceptionally quick and has an eye for goal.”

This is not surprising as Casi is also a superb athlete and Welsh champion in the 60m and 200m

Despite the long weekly journey to the academy, the sessions are fully professional with the coaches providing feedback to the girls following weekend matches, a weights session in the gym followed by skills and tactics.

In April 2022, Casi was selected to play for Cymru for the first time in the Bob Docherty Tournament in Newcastle. With games against England A and B squads as well as Scotland, Casi scored her first international goal in a memorable victory against England A.

During the summer Casi travelled to Florida with the Cymru Under 15 team to take part in the CONCACAF Cup, with games against Costa Rica, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Haiti.

Following her performances in America, she was selected by coach Nia Davies for Cymru Under 17 in the First Round of European Qualifiers in Israel in October 2022 with Cymru beating Montenegro 4-0 and Israel 4-0 securing their place in Round 2.

In preparation for the next series of matches in March 2023, the squad travelled to Portugal for warm-up matches beating the Czech Republic 2-1 (Casi scoring the winning goal) and Serbia 3-2 (Casi scoring the opening goal) and losing 0-3 against Portugal.

A trip to the Netherlands followed in late March for the Second Round of European Qualifiers, with Cymru facing some of the giants of the women’s game in Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands. The girls lost the three games but the experiences of playing against some of the strongest and most talented countries in the world were extremely valuable for the girls.

As the curtain closes on a memorable season for Casi, what does she hope to achieve next year? Her priority is to work towards a set of good GCSE results but in terms of football Casi’s hope is to continue her development as an international player and establish herself in the Cymru Under 17 team, attract the attention of professional WSL clubs in England and hope to be offered a full-time contract in the future.

On behalf of everyone associated with the Ceredigion Schools Football Association we would like to congratulate Casi on her numerous successes this year and wish her the best of luck for the future. In Casi we have an excellent role model for both boys and girls whose aim is to reach the top in their sport.

• Report by Mike Davies, Ceredigion Schools Football Association chairman