Of the current crop of promising young women’s soccer players in New Zealand, Priscilla Duncan is arguably the most talented prospect of them all. Indeed, this writer will go so far as to say that such are some of her footballing attributes, particularly her vision, her creativity and both her range and quality of passes, that Priscilla is the most exciting playing prospect I’ve seen in New Zealand women’s soccer since Michele Cox. Now, given how high a regard in which I hold Michele - no Kiwi soccer player, male or female, ranks higher in my estimations - this is a massive endorsement of Priscilla’s burgeoning talent, make no mistake. And while some may criticise me for bestowing such praise on a young player, the Ellerslie midfielder is well on the way to proving that her skills are deserving of far greater recognition and acknowledgement than the usual polite rounds of applause and pats on the back. At eighteen years of age, she already has a SWANZ Cup winner’s medal to her name, as well as the highly coveted Most Valuable Player prize, the honour afforded the Player of the Day in the SWANZ Cup Final, the match which, in the absence of a club-based women’s national league competition, effectively determines the country’s premier women’s soccer club. She has represented her country at Under-17 level in both the 1999 and 2000 Australian State Youth Championships, and was a goalscoring member of the Under-18 squad which contested the Quadrangular International Tournament in Auckland in 2001, a key part of New Zealand’s preparations for Priscilla’s current assignment. The perky midfielder is currently part of the SWANZ Under-19 squad bidding to qualify for the inaugural FIFA Under-19 Women’s World Cup Finals, which are scheduled to take place in Canada in August and September, 2002. The qualifying tournament is taking place in Tonga, and Priscilla, who acknowledges her coach at Ellerslie, Chris Milicich, as having the biggest influence on her career to date, is quietly confident of appearing on the world stage in four months’ time. "Ideally, I’d like to make the starting eleven, but as an older member of the squad, I see it as part of my responsibilities to help the younger ones through, because it’s not going to be an easy process. "That said, we’ll be disappointed if we don’t make the Oceania final. As for beyond that match, we’ll certainly be giving it our best shot, but Australia will definitely be hard to beat". Should the SWANZ U-19s make it to Canada, Priscilla won’t have quite so far to travel, for come finals time, she’ll be settling into her new surroundings, having acquired a four-year scholarship at the South-West Baptist University in Missouri, USA. "I’m really excited by it. Amber Hearn, Hayley Moorwood and I were offered a scholarship at the end of last year, and I’m heading over in August. "It’s a fantastic opportunity, and I know I’ll be getting a tremendous soccer education there, both on and off the field. Afterwards, I’d like to come back and be considered good enough to play for the SWANZ". There’s no doubt, in this writer’s mind, that Priscilla Duncan will achieve that objective. For a young lady who excels at ball sports, and who picked up soccer and cricket from an early age, she has a huge footballing future ahead of her. NB  Priscilla was named Auckland Young Player of the Year in 2001, and International Young Player of the Year in 2002.