PRUDHOE Town Women’s prized possession of years gone by is making a big name for herself Stateside.

Rhiannon Castle, a former pupil at Prudhoe High School, capped a remarkable record-breaking year playing soccer for Louisiana State University Alexandria Athletics (LSUA) Generals by being named the All-Louisiana Team Member newcomer of the year.

As a result of her brilliant season, she also earned a place in the All-State team of the year. Making the move from Western Nebraska Community College, Rhiannon, labelled as a junior forward at the university where she is majoring in kinesiology, rewrote the LSUA single-season record book by setting four new bests.

The pint sized forward, who played on the wing for Prudhoe, became the Generals’ top scorer in one season as she hit nine goals, breaking the record by scoring the only goal of the game in her side’s 1-0 victory over Huston-Tillotson University, of Texas.

That was one of the four game-winning goals she secured, her total again seeing her break the existing record.

The accolades didn’t stop there and she became the team’s top shooter with 56 shots on goal, with the 29 on target also a new best for LSUA!

Gaining 21 individual points for nine goals and three assists from the 20 games she played, Rhiannon’s total saw her tied in a fifth single-season record for the Generals.

The Prudhoe hot shot kept on impressing, and she scored the LSUA’s first ever hat-trick in program history when she hit a treble in a 4-0 win over the University of the Southwest.

Those three goals also brought in a single-game record six points for Rhiannon, beating her own previous record of five, which she recorded in the 6-1 victory over Harris-Stowe State when she scored two and was also credited with an assist.

Her fantastic performances helped the Generals finish the season 11-9, their second season of winning more than they’ve lost, and saw them to the conference semi-finals for the second time too.

In addition, it has also earned her a move to a bigger club.

Rhiannon said: “It was a big change moving from Nebraska to a southern state like Louisiana, but I soon got used to the humidity.

“The season started off badly but, when we got to conference we got better as a team, and made it to the conference tournament. Unfortunately for LSUA, that game wasn’t for us and we lost.

“It was really rough for us, but we’re all ready to bring on next season.

“I had a good season and I broke a few LSUA records, and managed to receive some awards from the conference board. I just recently found out that I was congratulated with the All-State team of Louisiana, which is amazing because I have worked hard and will continue to work harder to become, like I said before moving to the US, the female Lionel Messi!

“In November, I tried out for the lady rafters, a semi-professional team in Shreveport, Louisiana, and I’m happy to say they have picked me up so I will be training, playing and improving with them in the summer.”

With everything going well for Rhiannon, could we expect to see her terrorising defences in England again any time soon?

She said: “I would like to thank my family, especially my mum, dad and sister, and also my boyfriend Jorge from Aurora, Colorada. He came with me to LSUA to continue his collegiate soccer and also spent the summer in Hexham, Prudhoe and Newcastle. He loved it and would like to live there and play football!”