FORMER Wycliffe College pupil Charlotte Lewis has been selected to play for the first GB ladies American football team.

Charlotte, 30, was not aware there was an opportunity for women to play American football in the UK until her friend Beverley Marwood invited her along to a training session.

“Having played rugby for 10 years in English and Scottish premiership leagues I was after a new sporting challenge,” said Charlotte, a Minnesota Vikings fan.

“After hearing about American Football from my friend we decided that I should give it a go. I went for a training session and was hooked.

“The game is totally different from rugby due to the amount of players involved for your offensive team, defence team and special plays, whereas in rugby you always have 15 players on the pitch.”

After attending various training sessions across the country Charlotte, who left Wycliffe College in 1998, was invited to attend the GB trials and was then selected for the women’s team.

“I was over the moon when I found out I had made the team. It's fantastic and a great honour to be selected to play for Great Britain,” said Charlotte, a defensive ‘nose’ tackle for team GB.

The team won their first international five-a-side American football game on Sunday against Sweden 27 – 10.

“The game has been scaled to 5 a-side as it is a new and growing sport for women in the UK,” said Charlotte who lives in North Yorkshire.

Elesa Zehndorfer, head of the British American Football Association women's football development group, said: "The five-a-side game is a great development tool for learning the basics of the sport and by only needing a small number of players it means we can rapidly expand the number of locations offering the opportunity for females to play."

A section of Sunday's game was aired on the recently launched Sportswomen programme on Sky Sports News on Tuesday, October 15.