By Chris Dicketts

It is fair to say that Deanna Cooper is having a meteoric rise through the ranks of women's football at the moment.

Just last year she was plying her trade in the Gillingham Football Club Centre of Excellence, and now she is a mainstay of the Gillingham Ladies first team midfield.

Not only is she one of the first names on manager Ian Varley's team sheet but now she is establishing herself on the international scene as well.

She has now played four times for her Country, which includes three friendlies and a qualifier against Estonia.

This week she started against Finland in a friendly and played the first 45 minutes of a 2-0 victory, talking about the game she said: "The game against Finland was brilliant, because there were 26 players in the squad.

"I wasn't even expecting to get on the pitch let alone start, I was very excited when we found out the starting line up but it did make me quite nervous.

"I had my first camp with the u15's when I was 14 and it was from this camp that I got selected for the friendlies against Germany, and to get selected for my first camp I think I just had a couple of good games when the scouts were watching!"

Deanna has still yet to turn 17 and she is proud of the fact that she has become a regular in the international set up for her country.

She added: "I am definitely very proud of the fact that I have been in the England set up for a few years now and feel that it has really improved the way that I play."

The natural progression for the centre midfielder is to make her way into the full England squad managed by Hope Powell, and it is something she certainly has her eye on.

She said: "One of my dreams is definitely to play for the full international squad but I have got a long way to go yet and a lot of work to do, but in the future that would be amazing."

Amazingly this is Deanna's first full season in the Ladies game, yet she is showing maturity beyond her years in the centre of midfield alongside Laura East and Danni Farmer.

Talking about her first full season, she said: "I wasn't expecting to start every game in my first season of ladies football as it is completely different to playing at the centre of excellence. And especially with the squad as it is now"

Deanna also has three goals to her name this season, although that could have been more but for teams pulling out of the League.

She added: "I did start to get quite worried as whenever I scored the goals got wiped off, but it's nice to score a few that count every now and then.

"Since I have been playing football I don't think there is a position I haven't played before, I've even played in goal before, but as long as I'm playing football I don't mind what position I play."

Cooper has also recently been nominated for the prestigious Young Sportsperson of the Year awards from the KRNM, not that she was expecting to be nominated.

"It was quite a shock to find out that I had been nominated for the KRNM Sport award as it's not something I was expecting, and it did make me quite happy to think that someone else had nominated me for it makes it even more special as it makes me want to do even better."

Happily the youngster is enjoying her football at the Gills now, and admitted it was a tough decision who to join when she left the Centre of Excellence last summer.

She said: "I love playing at Gillingham at the moment, I love playing with all the girls as they are all quality and make me want to step up to their level of play, but at the moment I am really enjoying it.

"It was definitely a hard decision when I finished the centre of excellence as I had a few clubs asking me if I wanted to go to their trials, but I didn't want to move away from home and still wanted to stay at my school to do my A Levels.

"I also knew that Ian had big ambitions for the club and he told me that big players were signing which they did and he said that he would do his best to get Gills to a level so that I could still be in the England set up which has all happened! So I am really glad that I did stay at Gillingham!"

Deanna is one of those rare sportspersons who are talented at more than one sport and also represents England at Cricket as well; even if it is hard to juggle both sports she still manages it.

Talking about playing cricket and football, she added: "When I was playing both cricket and football at club level and centre of excellence it was easy as football was played in the winter and cricket in the summer.