Perry Van Der Beck 1978 - 1982, 1984, 1985, 1989 - 1993; 1980 (id), 1983(id), 1984(id)

Perry Van Der Beck was born November 5th, 1959 in East St. Louis, Illinois. In 1978, the Rowdies drafted Perry out of high school. At the time he was the youngest native born American playing professional soccer. He was also the first American 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 major team in the NASL. In both 1978 and 1979, they made it to the championship game.
In 1983, Van der Beck played with Team America during its dismal single season. The 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 Perry 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. Perry 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. However, the NASL was at heart an outdoor league and when the MISL began operation, it quickly took over the indoor soccer market. By the time Perry had returned to the Rowdies in 1984, the NASL was on its last legs and in 1985, he left the team to follow former Rowdies coach Gordon Jago to the Dallas Sidekicks of the MISL.

Perry remained with the Sidekicks for three seasons, caping his time with the team by winning the MISL championship in 1987. On July 4, 1987, the Sidekicks announced they would not renew his 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. He served as the player/coach with the Tampa Bay Terror of the National Professional Soccer League during the 1996-1997 season.

At the end of the season, he retired from playing and joined the Tampa Bay Mutiny of Major League Soccer 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, Perry replaced former Rowdie Peter Vermes as the Super Y-League Olympic Development Program National Camp Technical Director.

In June 2008, Perry was hired as the technical director and youth director of the new Tampa Bay Rowdies organization. See the Rowdies website for more info: http://www.tbrowdies.com/