Perry Van der Beck

In 1978, the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the North American Soccer League (NASL) drafted Perry Van der Beck out of St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Florissant, Missouri. At the time he was the youngest native born American playing professional soccer. He was also the first American ever drafted out of high school. Despite his youth and relative inexperience when he joined the Rowdies, he gradually worked himself into becoming a significant contributor to the team. At the time, the Rowdies were a top-tier team in the NASL. In both 1978 and 1979, they made it to the Soccer Bowl championship game.

In 1983, Van der Beck played with Team America during its dismal single season. USSF wanted to combine all the dominant U.S. players in NASL onto one team to give them an opportunity to develop, as well as to create publicity for the national team. While the concept attracted the support of Van der Beck and some other U.S. players, it was viewed with suspicion by many others, such as Rick Davis. Team America went 10-20 and folded after the 1983 season. Van der Beck then returned to the Rowdies for a single season.

During his time with the Rowdies, the NASL had played both an indoor as well as its more well known outdoor seasons. He was member of the Rowdies' 1979–80 NASL indoor championship team as well as their 1981–82 indoor runner-up squad. However, the NASL was at heart an outdoor league and when the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) began operation, it quickly took over the indoor soccer market. By the time Van der Beck had returned to the Rowdies in 1984, the NASL was on its last legs and in 1985, Van Der Beck left the team to follow former Rowdies coach Gordon Jago to the Dallas Sidekicks of the MISL.

Van der Beck remained with the Sidekicks for three seasons, capping his time with the team by winning the MISL championship in 1987. On July 4, 1987, the Sidekicks announced they would not renew Van der Beck's contract and he became a free agent. On August 11, 1987, he signed with the St. Louis Steamers. He then moved, sometime later, to the Wichita Wings.

In 1979, Van der Beck played his first game with the U.S. national team. He would go on to earn 23 caps, scoring two goals with the team. He was an integral part in the U.S. failed attempts to qualify for the 1982 and 1986 FIFA World Cups.

In 1979, he was a member of the U.S. soccer team at the 1979 Pan American Games.[2] In 1980, he would have been the captain of the U.S. soccer team at the 1980 Summer Olympics. Despite qualifying for the tournament, the U.S. did not send a team to Moscow when President Jimmy Carter organized a boycott of the games in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

In 1985, Van der Beck was selected the U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year.

Van der Beck served on the US Soccer Board of Directors from 1986 to 1993.

In 2011, Van der Beck was inducted into the St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame.

Van der Beck has owned and operated the original Camp Kikinthagrass since 2003.

He served as the player/coach with the Tampa Bay Terror of the National Professional Soccer League during the 1996–97 season.

At the end of the 1997 season, he retired from playing and joined the Tampa Bay Mutiny of Major League Soccer (MLS) as an assistant coach for the 1998 season. In 2001, he became the head coach of the Mutiny for its last 11 games of the team's existence when then head coach, Alfonso Mondelo was fired. While assistant coach of the Mutiny, he also coached the Northdale Rangers of the Florida Youth Soccer Association to three State Cups and the 1998 Region III Cup. After MLS shut down the Mutiny at the end of the 2001 season, Van Der Beck replaced Peter Vermes as the Super Y-League Olympic Development Program National Camp Technical Director. He also spent one season as a staff coach with the Adidas Elite Soccer Program, which identifies the nation's best high school players and coaches them in weeklong training programs.[3]

• Perry Van der Beck at National-Football-Teams.com
• NASL/MISL stats