Perry

Van der Beck

Van der Beck was born and raised in Florissant, Missouri. His youth coaches were players from the St. Louis Stars, the NASL club that operated in St. Louis during that period. At St. Thomas Aquinas High School he played for Vince Drake, who had been coaching the Falcons since 1968 and would go on to become the winningest high school soccer coach in U.S. history. Drake's teams won state championships in 1975 and 1977 during Van der Beck's time there.

In 1978 the Tampa Bay Rowdies drafted him directly out of Aquinas after seeing him at a U.S. youth national team tournament in France — the first American ever drafted out of high school, and at the time the youngest native-born American playing professional soccer. He qualified for, and was set to be captain of, the 1980 USMNT for the Moscow Olympics but did not compete due to a U.S. boycott by President Jimmy Carter. He went on to earn 23 caps for the national team and was named U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year in 1985.

He returned to St. Louis twice during his playing career, first with the Steamers (MISL, 1987–88) and later with the Ambush (NPSL, 1997). He was inducted into the St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame in 2011.