A TEACHER at Ross High School has been named Hibernian’s Women’s Player of the Year.

Ellis Notley has become a key part of the Scottish Women’s Premier Division side since joining as a teenager.

Now, after more than 100 games for the Easter Road team, she has scooped a top award at an end-of-season ceremony.

She said: “It’s a great honour.

“It was voted for by fellow team-mates and peers and for them to recognise the hard work I put into the team on and off the park was a real honour.

“We are such a good team and we are close.

“For them to recognise the hard work – I would not be where I was without them.”

Notley, who played for Musselburgh Windsor and Aberlady Football Club as a youngster, has been at Hibernian since she was just 13.

Now, a decade later, she felt the club was continuing to progress in the right direction after finishing fourth in the top flight of the women’s game in Scotland.

She said: “The club is moving in the right direction and becoming fully professional.

“As times go on, it will be a real building block and going into challenging the teams above us.

“They have been professional for the last two seasons and they train and play with each other every day.

“Us doing that is only going to help hopefully to bridge that gap and challenge the teams above us.

“We have shown we can do that but let ourselves down at times as well.”

Hibs finished 14 points clear of fifth-placed Aberdeen but 17 points adrift of third-placed Celtic Women.

Former Aberlady Primary School and North Berwick High School pupil Notley has committed her future to Hibs and signed a new deal at the beginning of last month.

That will allow her to continue playing for the side while working as a teacher.

Currently, she is in her NQT year as a physical education (PE) teacher at Ross High School in Tranent.

The 23-year-old said: “The club have been great in allowing me to sign a new deal with my current teaching role.

“I cannot thank them enough for having a new deal and then two weeks later being named player of the year was a great way to end the season.”

The central midfielder still lives in the county and felt that her success on the field could benefit those in the classroom.

She told Courier Sport: “If it is football or whatever sport, I feel I am a role model for the pupils in the schools.

“Male and female young people, I can inspire them and they can look up to me.”